Background:

A disabled person faces sexual limitations in addition to physical barriers, affected by various kinds of social stereotypes.

Objective:

To analyze maternal perceptions about sexuality as a taboo for persons who have some physical or intellectual disability.

Methodology:

Qualitative study with a phenomenological approach; 100 mothers were interviewed, all of whom have relatives with intellectual and physical disabilities. Their sexuality as a taboo was analyzed, and, in function of this, several sub-themes and analyses codes. The interview, processed with Atlas, was applied.

Results:

It was observed that some disabled persons have sexual desire loss, and their family members conceptualize sex and relate it with prostitution. Many of them are sterilized without their consent with the idea that they would not be capable to be responsible for raising a family, or that the children have the same disability as their parents.

Conclusions:

There is social rejection for people with disabilities; there is still no total inclusion in society and even worse to their sexuality rights. Persons with disabilities have on occasion been deprived of bodily birth control decisions because of prejudices and fears of their family members due to hereditary factors, this idea is very present in the studied context; therefore, sex is a taboo for the interviewed mothers of disabled persons.

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