November 2001

Enabling Romance: "Why Would Anyone Want a Book on THAT?"

Enabling Romance: A Guide to Love, Sex and Relationships for People with Disabilities (and the People who Care About Them)

By Ken Kroll and Erica Levy Klein

When Erica met Ken for breakfast, she was surprised by how the waiter ignored her date and asked her what he wanted. First she was irritated, then curious.

She figured others dating people with disabilities must have faced similar rudeness and probably lots of other obstacles. She went to a bookstore and asked for a book on relationships with someone who is disabled. "Why would anyone want a book on that?" the clerk replied.

Erica was amazed. Surely she wasn't the only person in the world to fall in love with a wheelchair user. Of course she wasn't. Erica and Ken, both being writers, did preliminary research that revealed that millions of people with disabilities and their partners had struggled with issues of love and sex. But there was no book. So Erica and Ken used their own love affair--and later marriage--as a springboard for exploring these issues.

They sent out hundreds of questionnaires to discover the problems and solutions others had found for developing intimacy in the face of disability. The result is the candid and compassionate book Enabling Romance, considered by many to be "The Joy of Sex for people with disabilities."

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