TRANSCRIPT
Best Practice for Providing Sexuality Education to Students who are Blind, Deafblind, or have Low Vision
1-12-26 

>>Katherine: So I'm going to be talking about Sexuality and Healthy Relationships Education for Youth and Adults who are Blind, DeafBlind, or Low Vision. And a lot of my work is focused on people with cognitive impairments, that tends to be the population I work with the most. But I think in general, talking about how to talk about sexuality with people with disabilities, there's a lot of similarities among the different people with disabilities and it might be more of just how we teach certain things, based on their disability. So I'll be talking kind of generally about sexuality and disability. And then I'll be sharing some resources as well. That might be really helpful to you. As I said, I'm in New Hampshire. I have been a sexuality educator for over 30 years and I actually started doing this work because a lot of special educators were reaching out to me to work with students with cognitive impairments, as well as developmental disability agencies and they were reaching out to say how do we address this topic. So I started doing this work. And then I also personally had -- experienced an accident and started using a wheelchair from a spinal cord injury. So I started to notice people were treating me differently now that I had a disability, even though I was the same person as I was before. And so disability awareness became really interesting to me as well as sexuality and healthy relationships. And so that kind of sent me down this career path. And a lot of the work that I've done, I do with a group of people called self-advocates, people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. I'm going to start off by showing you a video, which is part of a project I worked on in New York State and it's from the office of people with disabilities or for people with disabilities. And they created four empowerment series videos for people with disabilities. And I'm going to show you two of them today. And I know a link was put in the chat, which has all the handouts. I have lots of resource lists and things for you, as well as video description of the two videos that I'm going to show today. And you'll see some articles and all kinds of things in there for you to take a look at when you have a moment. So let me just start by sharing this video. I just want to make sure I've got the sound on, like I was supposed to. I do. Okay. Good. So I'm going to share this video with you. And, like I mentioned, a lot of people with developmental disabilities are part of the cast, shall we say. They are narrating some of the pieces, the actors, and then there's also some clips of interviews with them about different topics around sexuality. So I'm going to just show you this one because I think it really sets the stage for how we want to think about this topic for students and younger people with disabilities. [ Video ] 

>>Sexuality and people with developmental disabilities is part of an empowerment series for self-advocates. 

>>Part of growing up is having new experiences in your life. It might be like a new job, school, or taking on more responsibilities at home. You may have new feelings and new relationships. Maybe you're thinking about who you are as a person and how you want to show the world who you are. Maybe you want to start dating, find a partner to be in a romantic and/or sexual relationship and learn more about your body and feel good about yourself. 

>>This is about our sexuality. 

>>Is sexuality part of your life? 

>>Yes, it is. Sexuality is part of everyone's life. Everyone has a sexuality, even if they are not having sex. Having information about sexuality helps us understand ourselves and what we want in our relationships. 

>>Many people with disabilities do not get education about sex and sexuality. This happens for many reasons. Sometimes others don't think people with disabilities are sexual people. But guess what. Everyone is a sexual person in their own way. We all need information because it helps us make choices. Let's change how we think about sexuality and people with disabilities. 

>>Sexuality is part of life. 

>>Whether you have a disability or not. 

>>Everybody should know what it feels like to have a partner, have a relationship, or just live a normal sexual life. 

>>People with disabilities can be very sexual. I mean, we have needs just like anyone else has needs. 

>>We have the same sexual orientation and the same gender and neurotypical undisabled people. Some of us are gay, some of us are lesbians, some of us are heterosexual, pan sexual, bisexual. But some are trans or non-binary. We are like everybody else in this universe. 

>>Everybody should have the information. 

>>I wish to have learned more about pleasing a person. 

>>I wish somebody had told me straight up your mom and dad might not be comfortable with things but you can have the same life as anybody else. You can get married. You can have kids. You can do all those kinds of things, despite your disability. 

>>I wish that the school setting we were in taught us more about sexuality and just the normal healthy relationships. 

>>Sexuality and sexual feelings are normal. Some people have sexual feelings and some don't. And both are normal. 

>>You have the right to ask for information. You can learn about sex and sexuality from classes, books, and people like a doctor, a nurse, a counselor, or a trusted friend. 

>>Remember, it's okay to have questions about sex. It's okay to ask the people that support you for information. Being a sexual person is a part of being a human. 

>>Sexuality and people with developmental disabilities is part of an empowerment series for self-advocates produced by the New York State office for people with developmental disabilities and Elevatus Training in collaboration with the self-advocacy association of New York State. And the University of Minnesota's Institute on Community Integration. 

>>Katherine: All right. Just to have us think about the video a little bit, what were some of the messages you heard that video give people with disabilities? What stood out to you? Or what do you remember? And you can put those in the chat. So just a few ideas of things you heard. Sexuality is normal. Sure. Any other things people heard? That they lack access to information. Uh-huh. It's okay to have questions. Yeah. Everyone needs the information. Thinking about how to be sexual, challenging assumptions about knowing how. They're like everyone else, having information is crucial. Yeah. Absolutely. So this is part of this empowerment series for people with disabilities understand it is okay to ask questions and everyone is a sexual person. And that doesn't mean you're having sex, it means you have a sexuality. And that people don't think of people with disabilities as sexual beings. I'm reading more in the chat. And the need to express feelings. Yeah. So lots of positive messages given to people with disabilities through these videos. So one of the things that we can do in our role, whether as professionals or parents or people with disabilities, is to give positive messages and not give fear-based messages as well. But one of the things I did is I asked this group of self-advocates -- they were in Vermont, I'm in New Hampshire. I said why do you want to learn and need to learn about this topic? So we can learn to have healthy relationships. So we aren't lonely. I'm sure you are all aware that people with disabilities feel isolated and lonely because of lack of information and learning how to connect and form relationships. So we're able to make informed choices, not just make choices but have the information to make choices that are right for us. So we can pick the right person. For the toughest part of the relationship, making it last. So we can be safe. And one person said I learned from the school of hard knocks. I'm still getting over the trauma of learning the hard way. Someone else said because we all have desires and needs and that's okay. We certainly heard that in the video as well. So that we can be sexual self-advocates and not just self-advocates. A lot of people with disabilities say that it's a lot easier to be just a regular self-advocate, like asking to live on your own or get a job or something along those lines. But when we start saying things like I want to start dating or I want to learn about this topic or I want some privacy around this, people get really uncomfortable and nervous and don't quite know how to respond. And so they say it makes it more difficult for them to speak up for what they want and need in their lives. There's also some statistics. Like I said, this is people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are seven times more likely to be sexual abused than someone without I/DD. Also they found that, in particular, people with low cognitive abilities. For example, male participants were more likely to have contracted a sexually-transmitted infection than males without a disability. Same for females. So 26% compared to 10%. And then also that the rate of pregnancy doubled, teen pregnancy doubled with people with cognitive impairments, specifically. So we know that there's lots of data that shows us that lack of education can lead to some negative consequences. So what we're going to do is talk about some of the myths about students with disabilities and sexuality education. We're also going to just hear from all of you about what barriers do you face around talking or teaching or engaging in this topic with the person that you're supporting or loving. And then explore just some tips and tools and some resources for providing training to students. So just basically covering the same amount of what we -- same plan of what I talked about. And I also like to have a few group agreements while we're having our discussion. So stories stay, lessons leave. If someone puts in something or asks a question or something in the chat that whoever wrote that and what they write stays here. But what we learn from the discussion about that can leave. It's okay to pass, you know, like if I say please put in the chat your thoughts about this, you don't have to. You always have the right to pass and you can just listen and observe. Notice your assumptions too. Do you have assumptions about people with disabilities regarding sexuality and relationships? Just notice those. And take space, make space. And it's a little bit easier when we're in this setting where you can just put things in the chat. But, you know, if you just want to give people space to have other people ask questions as well. And another thing I use in a lot of my classes is don't yuck my yum. It's just not being judgmental and making comments about people's decisions and things like that. So I like to have those just to set the stage when we're talking about this topic. The other thing that I want to focus on too is we have this idea of sexuality as meaning sex. You know, because of those first three letters in the word. But it's a much broader definition. So that's what I'm talking about. So it means more than intercourse or sex. It's about intimacy, connection, and belonging. That's an aspect of our sexuality is feeling close to other people. Feeling connected. Feeling like we matter and we belong. It's also about all different kinds of relationships. And I do a lot of work around the different kinds of relationships you can be in and how you interact in those different relationships as well. It's about the gender that you were assigned when you were born and your gender identity and your sexual orientation. That's an aspect of our sexuality. It's how we feel about others but also how we feel about ourselves too. Do we have high self-esteem? Do we feel confident? Do we have high self-worth? And the last piece is about sexual expression and behavior but it's a big part of who we are as humans. And it even said it in the video too. It's part of being a human. And it's a total of who we are, what we believe, what we feel, and how we respond. So a big part of being a human and living in the world. So and we're sexual beings from birth to death. Again, that doesn't mean we're having sex, it means we have a sexuality. So I would also love to get your response to this question. You can -- well, you don't have to introduce yourself because your name shows up in the chat. But just tell us what was the primary message that you received when you were growing up about this topic of sexuality? So you're growing up, what kind of messages did you get about this topic of sexuality? If you could put your ideas in the chat, that would be great. And I'll read those off. I'll give you a little bit of time there. Nobody or my parents didn't talk about sexuality. Yeah. It's very private. Keep it to yourself. Minimal to none at all. Yep. It's not to be talked about. Yeah. This is not really discussed but everyone should be heterosexual. I think Texas is an abstinence-only state. Single-parent mother, saw the loneliness. Sometimes it might not be someone saying something but just observe something and get a message from that as well. Less acceptable for girls than boys. Absolutely. People say there's a lot of, you know, boys have all this freedom and they can be with partners upstairs in their room but females have to stay downstairs with a partner. The message I received about sexuality was that it was considered taboo and not discussed. Yeah. So that is -- that's a really common message that people get is no discussion, which gives a message, right, that there's something different about this. Because we can't talk about it. So taboo, somebody mentioned. Yeah. And, yeah. Just no discussion. Exactly. So that can really make it difficult for us to talk about it ourselves because nobody talked to us about it. And so it's hard to know what does a normal, healthy conversation even sound like. So, you know, I get it. It is difficult. It is uncomfortable to talk about it. But there's lots of great resources and ways to talk about it. And I also know that some people who got these messages that you're talking about around don't talk about it have really flipped and said I didn't know anything. And so as a parent, I am gonna talk to my kids. Or I didn't know anything and as a teacher, I want to make sure that these students have what they need to make sure they're safe and happy. So sometimes the lack motivates us to change the -- flip the story and talk about it. So, a couple of things that people with disabilities have told me they receive around -- the messages that they receive. So the first one is sexual identity and desire. Like, they often get the message that you are not a sexual person. You don't need this. You shouldn't be sexual. You probably can't consent. Lots of those kinds of messages about this isn't for you. And self-advocates have told me they have been in the mainstream health class learning about nutrition and then the sexuality unit starts and they're removed from class. Like, you don't need that. So that's a message that many people with disabilities receive. Also, that you're innocent and need protection. So you're in some ways a child, even when you're an adult, so we're going to protect you from this thing. Also responsibility and choice. You know, lots of messages self-advocates have said around you're not responsible. You can't make good decisions or solve your own problems. Always making mistakes. Like really negative things about them as just being able to not make decisions well. And then parenting and the future. They often talk about, you know, they get the message that they wouldn't be good parents so they shouldn't have children. And they also say that they notice that their non-disabled siblings receive different messages than they receive. So they notice that difference in the way that parents are talking to them about this. So lots of negative messages for many people, but also when you add that layer of disability on, you know, you get even more negative messages. And what we want to do in our role as parent or teacher, whatever your role is, to try to give positive messages. That doesn't mean that you're saying, oh, go for it. Whatever. But really giving positive, supportive, encouraging messages. And somebody wrote -- the video said that sexuality is normal. That's really the message we want to give. So sexual feelings and needs are healthy and normal. It's okay to have questions. That was another one that was in the video. It's your right to have a relationship. It's okay to ask for what you need. Sex is a positive and pleasurable part of life. You have the right to be in a sexual relationship. And you're a sexual person. So more positive messages. Because you may have seen the movie Mean Girls where the physical education teacher says if you have sex, you will get chlamydia and you will die. That's negative. That's fear based and trying to scare you. My recommendation is to be more positive and open about it. Because a lot of self-advocates say when people try to restrict or control them, their sexuality, like you can't date this person or you're not allowed to do this, they say then I work around that person. And when I work around people, I take more risks. And also, if something bad were to happen, I wouldn't have anybody to talk to because I just went around this person. So I think really trying to think about how do we create open dialogue so that young people can learn and make decisions that are right for them. Just a few things about human sexual development and people with disabilities. You know, very similarly, people with disabilities are assigned a gender and we're taught how to be a boy and how to be a girl. That's across the board. Also, people with disabilities, biological changes are the same. They begin puberty within the same typical range of when puberty starts. There are a few conditions that people can have that might impact puberty and their sexual development and their sexual organ development. And that's things like Williams syndrome or prader Willy but in general, biology happens in the same way it does for people without disabilities. One thing I often will use is, you know, they need the same information based on biological age. So if they're 18 years old, whether they have a disability or not, they need the same information . Depending on their disability, how you teach might be a little bit different. But they all need the same topics, based on biological age. Many have sexual feelings and needs, like anyone else else, and dreams too. Many people dream about being in a relationship. Maybe having a child some day. People have dreams, and that's all the same. And then what's different -- and we've sort of talked about this a little bit. But lack basic information. So thought of as not sexual or oversexed or removed from class. So they often lack basic information. Considered children. We talked a little bit about this, about messages they received. Really wanting to teach people to, you know, if they're 18, act like 18-year-olds. You know, so give them sort of those social norms of what is expected for certain ages, and teach some of that as well. And the nature of their disability. So maybe it's autism and they don't pick up on social cues. Maybe they need additional topics. Maybe they need more descriptors, like for someone who is blind. That might be -- based on their disability, there might be a different curriculum or a different way of teaching. And many people with disabilities lack friendships and social opportunities to practice skills and practice being in relationships as well. And they might feel very lonely, as we talked about. And then often lack privacy to explore sexuality. Many people with disabilities say when they bring up relationships, people call a team meeting. So everybody knows they're interested in dating. They don't have a lot of privacy around this. And then working with parents can be different than working with parents of kids that don't have disabilities. And, you know, many let go of dreams for their child when they hear their child has a disability. Maybe not as much as they used to let go of those dreams, but many parents will say to me that, you know, they kind of mourned that already. They sort of let that go. And now I'm asking them to go back and bring it all back up again and it can be really painful for them. So working with parents can be delicate. And also many parents are worried about sexual abuse, their child being abused, or their child abusing someone else. We want to make that connection that sexuality education is sexual abuse prevention as well. How you teach is different. And there's such a wide range of abilities and limitations with disability that it's hard to meet all the learning needs as well. So that can be a little bit different. But, in general, a lot of it is the same. And then what I wanted to ask you too is we know that people with disabilities lack sexuality education and self-advocates have said they have been removed from health class during the sexuality unit. So they often lack basic information. What have you seen with your students, those you love, due to a lack of sexuality education? Have you noticed anything? The impact of not having that education. If you could put your ideas in the chat, that would be wonderful. What have you noticed? What have you seen, as a consequence of not having education? Exaggerated ideas of sexuality and relationships. Very unrealistic. Yep. Right. So if no one talks to you, maybe you're watching TV and that's where you're getting your education from. Learning attempts through online searching and a lot of dangerous information. Right. I'm always saying if we don't teach healthy sexuality, someone else or something else might teach unhealthy. Sure, there are some good things online but how do you know which one is good? Yeah. And having to navigate that. Knowing when and where it's appropriate to explore your body. Yeah. So understanding public and private as well. Yeah. So we see that. We see people ending up in dangerous situations or having unrealistic views or maybe doing things in the wrong place. Lots of different consequences of a lack of education. And for some reason I've been thinking about this a lot lately. For some reason when we're teaching, say adolescents to drive or something like that, some skill. We make them take Driver's Ed. We make sure they drive a certain number of hours. They get a license. So we're really careful and we believe that education is protection, right, from a car accident. But for some reason, we have flipped this whole thing around sexuality that somehow education's dangerous. Yeah. So then a lack of awareness of privacy. Deafblind students exploring their body in front of others and they may or may not know they're there. Absolutely. The chat is blocking some words so if you're getting blocked, swap out the wording. Great. Good to know. Yeah. So lack of awareness and sort of that what's okay to do where. So public and private is important. You know, if you're working with someone who's Deafblind, they're not getting the same information. They're not able to observe the world and learn that way. Like, oh, nobody touches themselves in public, right? So we have to teach that. We have to be more concrete and really clear about what are private behaviors, what are public behaviors. What does private mean, specifically. And that it doesn't mean, you know, if we say the bathroom, it doesn't mean the bathroom at the mall, it means your bathroom at home with the door closed and no one can come in and out. So, yeah, being very concrete and specific about things. Yeah. So, you know, this idea that maybe sexuality is teaching your kid or someone to have sex. It's really so much more than sex. And we teach what it is. We don't teach people to go and do it. We just give lots of information so that people can make their own choices. So just quickly a few things that the sexuality education that all people need needs to be positive, encouraging, and supportive and not fear based. It needs to cover many topics. Empowers people and gives information. Is inclusive of all genders and sexual identities so no one in your class feels invisible. There are many LGBTQ+ children who said they were in a sex education in class and they felt excluded. It helps people become sexually healthy and have positive relationships and reduces the negative risk. And really the only downside to sexuality education is more about the teacher who's teaching it might be uncomfortable. People might get a little upset with you. But as far as students go, it's all positive. There's no down side to teaching about sexuality. Sometimes people worry that if you teach people, they'll have sex earlier. And it's just not true. In other countries where they talk about sexuality openly and discuss everything, they don't start -- the adolescents don't start having sex earlier than our adolescents. It's the same age that everyone tends to start, an average age. But the countries that talk about it openly have way less unplanned pregnancy. We know it has an impact on young people. I want to show you this quick video on sexual self-advocacy. That's what I try to teach is how do I teach people to be strong, sexual self-advocates. That means -- I'll let the people with disabilities tell you what that means. This is their ideas about it. [ Video ] 

>>Sexual self-advocacy is part of an empowerment series for self-advocates. 

>>Have you heard the term "self-advocate"? Being a self-advocate means to speak up for what you want. 

>>It means making your own decisions. 

>>What you need and want. 

>>Being responsible for yourself and taking a big role in getting what you want in your own life. 

>>Being a sexual self-advocate is about speaking up for what you want in your life. About how you dress, have relationships, and sexual experiences. 

>>Sexual self-advocacy means to me to speak up about wanting the same things as other people that don't have a disability. We want to get married. We want to have kids. We're sexual beings. Just because we have a disability doesn't mean we don't think about it. 

>>Being able to speak my mind and being able to say what I mean and mean what I say when it comes to sexuality. 

>>Sexual self-advocacy means if I'm with a significant other, that I want my privacy. 

>>You can advocate for your body and your choice. You can say yes. You can say no. If you're not comfortable in the situation that you don't want to get yourself into, you always have the right to say no. 

>>Being a sexual self-advocate is asking for support in relationships and sex when you need it. 

>>It's telling your parents, friends, and support providers what you want. 

>>It also means you get to have some privacy and can decide to not tell people personal things. 

>>It is important to talk to people, who you want to have relationships with. 

>>If you have a partner, it is letting them know what you want and asking what they want. 

>>Being a sexual self-advocate can help keep you safe and help you feel better about yourself. 

>>It can help you have the relationships you want. It can feel have empowering and help you feel happy. 

>>My body, my choice. 

>>As a sexual self-advocate -- 

>>My body is my own. When something doesn't feel right, it isn't right. 

>>Good information helps people make choices. I have the right to information that is true and given to me in a way I understand. If we don't have good information, we can't make choices that are right for us. 

>>I can speak up for what I want. If we're afraid to tell someone what we want, we may never live the life we want. Or we could get hurt along the way. 

>>It can be hard to be a sexual self-advocate, but it's worth it. 

>>Remember, you get to decide what is okay and not okay with you. It's important to tell others what you want. 

>>Sexual self-advocacy is part of an empowerment -- [ End of video ] 

>>Katherine: This idea of sexual self-advocacy is a little different. How do you speak up for your right to be in a relationship and then your rights in a relationship, as well. So I'm curious what kind of barriers you face in being able to teach about sexuality with students. If you could put those ideas in the chat. And then I'm going to give you some tips and resources and see if you have any specific questions too. Discomfort among colleagues. Yeah. So maybe it's, you know, my experience is that students really want to learn about this and that really the resistance comes more from other colleagues or maybe parents. Those are the people that are more resistant. So it might be talking about getting buy-in from colleagues or parents. Yeah. Parent buy-in. That's a huge topic. Yeah. How to present to varied disabilities. Exactly. It's a lot. And I've included some resources that might be helpful, in particular for blind, Deafblind, and low vision students. Yeah. So it's not easy when you have resistance and there's lots of different variety of disabilities. To explain a Deafblind person. It's difficult to explain to a Deafblind person. Yeah. Again, there is a -- I'll show you some of the resources too that might be helpful. And then getting buy-in, a lot of what I've talked about, you can talk about the need, you can talk about young people want it. You can talk about the positives of sexuality education. Especially if it's a male. Do you mean teaching a male, a Deafblind person who is male about sexuality, in particular? Is that what you mean? Like I said, if we don't teach healthy sexuality, someone else or something else might teach unhealthy, like we mentioned before. So there's lots of things we can use to try to get buy-in from parents, as well as statistics. About touching in private. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So teaching about public and private to someone who is Deafblind, is what you're talking about. Right. How do we teach -- because oftentimes when I teach public and private, I use pictures, right? So that's not going to work. So how do you teach -- just in general, I would say how would you teach this man anything and use those same tools. But talking really concretely. Private is when you're home in your bedroom, by yourself, with the door closed. Or in your bathroom at home with the door closed, depending on the living situation. So where is private and what behaviors can you do only in private, as well. Just -- yeah. Complex layers. It might take longer. Absolutely. Right. So the amount of time. And if you're teaching or something, you may not have that kind of time. And that might be interesting to bring in parents in that way, that they can help with some of this. Many of my students are multiple disabled and may not have any concept of their sexuality, and they're non-verbal. Sure. Yeah. We've got some -- we have a curriculum and we do have some communication boards and cards that we use with it. But I think that's the tricky part around sexuality is in the disability field, all means all. How do we make sure everyone has access to the information? And that might take a while to develop different resources and materials. Also, how many times can they do that? Yeah. Touching themselves. Yeah, I mean, if it's in private, there's no sort of limit, unless it's affecting their life. Like they're not willing to leave their room ever, or something like that. And their understanding is very youthful but their acts are very adult. They may have youthful ideas, kind of naive way of thinking, but their bodies are doing adult stuff. Yeah. How to handle when a student is exploring within the classroom? Yeah. I think we have to stop the behavior and try to figure out why they're doing that behavior in the classroom. So brainstorming. Is it because they don't understand public and private and we haven't figured out how to teach them? Is it because parents don't let them touch themselves at home? And so they're at school and they're just going to try it. So, yeah. I think we have to kind of look at the different behaviors too. Healthy sexual desires are not indicators of abuse. Breaking down fears and worries. Yeah. We don't want to assume that just because someone is interested and has desires that it means they've been abused. Hormones start going through the body at puberty and people start to have sexual feelings. Yeah. So props can be challenging to bring into concept development. Yeah. Absolutely. There are a lot of barriers. Even if you feel committed to it, it's not easy because you might have resistance and you may not have the materials you need to actually be effectively teach. Let me just show you a few things here. A few tips and then we'll look at some resource and then I will open it up to you all. But giving positive messages and not assuming that everyone is heterosexual as well. So when we teach, we use inclusive language. You don't have to know all the answers. You can look things up yourself. You can teach people to look things up, whatever makes the most sense in the work you're doing. It's all right to feel embarrassed. This is private stuff and we can feel embarrassed talking about it. But it's still important to talk about it. It's okay to answer questions later. Say, somebody were to ask you a question in a public place. You can say, you know, great question. Let's wait until we're out of the cafeteria and we have time back in the classroom. Whatever it might be. Like, it's okay to say let's talk later. And then as professionals, we want to give factual information. Not our values, not like what we think is important or not. We really want to teach information. And we can give a range of values. We can say some people believe this. Others believe this. What do you think? And one of those might be my value but you don't need to tell people your values. When we give our values, when we impose our values on students, they may do whatever we say. So they're not learning how to critically think about what they want and make their own decisions and learn from those. They also, parents can be upset because it may not be their values. Really, that's the parents' job and not our job as professionals. So that's why we don't want to give those. And we want to be really concrete and detailed which, like you said, is not the easiest when you're working with a Deafblind person. How can we be concrete and teach in the way that they understand? Age-appropriate, medically accurate. Sexuality education is age-appropriate and medically accurate. That's the key there, those two pieces. Like, we're not going to talk about sex with 2-year-olds. We're going to talk about body parts and, you know, like age-appropriate things. And we start to talk more about sex or reproduction when young people go through puberty. And so they understand about reproduction. That's their body is changing from a child to an adult. But we want to be age appropriate in our education. Lots of repetition. I think somebody wrote, you know, don't get it necessarily the first time. It's something that has to be taught over and over. And I don't know if the school has any curriculum, in particular, around this or you're trying to develop some. I'm happy to help out with that in any way. And maybe it's training colleagues or training people on how to teach and develop some resources. I just don't know what you already have, but I'm happy to help in any way. And also we have a three-day training where you can come and learn about how to lead classes, how to lead parent workshops on talking to their own children about sexuality. And then how to train other colleagues, like someone said. Train others about this topic too. Sometimes using the media is a good tool. It's not going anywhere. But, again, that might depend on the disability. But here, like I mentioned before, here are all the pros of sexuality education. Reduces one's risk of abuse. Being charged with a sex crime. Reduces loneliness. Sexual behaviors at work or class. Unplanned pregnancy, sexually-transmitted infections. It increases connection and healthy relationships in people's lives and really makes a difference in people's lives. And then the con, as I mentioned before, is more about us. It's, you know, we might feel unfortunately or it might feel awkward, as a teacher. And people might get upsets with you. But that's not about the students, that's about us. And so to me it's kind of a no-brainer. I would rather be a little embarrassed and see these positive impacts in people's lives. So in the Google -- in your folder, your handout folder. I'm just going to click on it so I can talk about it with all of you. I mentioned that there's some video descriptions of those two videos. If you're interested in having those read instead of just hearing the voices, you can hear more about the description. The slides from today are in a PDF but they're also slides in simple text. We took the text from the slides and put them in a document as well. I'm always looking for resources for different kinds of disabilities. So blind, Deafblind, low vision. I'm working on some -- creating our handouts for students with CVI. So I'm open to trying to develop more materials so that all students have access. And so I've collected some materials and I've included them in this link as well. So there's some activities and curriculum and different things here. There's an old curriculum for Deafblind students with developmental delays. It's an old, old, old -- I know when it was actually developed, but I've had it for a long time. This might help taking a look at this. The one thing with old materials is they may not be updated around -- oh, it's old but it's still good. Good. You have to update stuff around gender identity and things like that, but in general it's got good content in it. There's also some activities that people shared with me for blind/Deafblind students as well that you can make these sort of models and things to teach about genitalia or sexual parts. There's a couple of articles on the importance of meaningful sex ed for people with visual impairments. And another article. Sex ed for Deafblind youth and adults that you might find helpful as well. And then lots and lots of resources too. I've got resources for deaf resources. Some different links. I've got resources for self-advocates. And some of these resources you have to read but they also have a podcast that can read it for the person. So there's lots of different possibilities. So you might want to check those out. We've got some other resources for people with intellectual disabilities who are blind, as well. So take a look at all of these. And I just got this one today. Social skills. Teaching people with sensory disabilities social skills and sexuality. Lots of different resources here for you. So take a look at those and see, you know, if there's anything that might help. And then a few websites as well that might be helpful. I know we only have about five minutes before I pass it over to Kaycee. But I just wanted to see if you had any questions for me at this point. Anything on your mind. You'll see on the slides we have an e-newsletter, if you're interested in receiving that, you can just do the QR code or click on it and sign up for our e-newsletter. The name of my business is Elevatus Training. We've got a bunch of different trainings coming up as well. So here's my contact information. If you have any specific questions for me, here's my e-mail. And I'm happy to get back to you. And also check out our website. We've got lots of resources. You go to the resource tab up here and we've got different articles and things you might find really helpful in talking about sexuality as well. Any -- I don't see any questions from anyone at this point. Oh. Oh, great. So you're signed up in March. Wonderful! Wonderful. Oh, they're terrific, the resources. Great. And if you have any resources too, please share. I like to connect people with resources and I'm always gathering more and more. So I'm learning too, you know, what's the best kind of resources to use with blind, Deafblind, and low vision. Like I said, we're redoing our handouts for students with CVI. So I'm always trying to improve the resources and materials too. So if you have any ideas, please reach out. Happy to work on that with you too. Yeah. So, great. Check out all the resources. Check out our website. And the trainings that we have coming up. Let me go back a little bit. One is AAC user and relationships, coming up in February. We also do a lot of work around policy, so agencies want to have a sexuality policy. So we have a workshop on that. And then we're also going to be talking about flipping the story on disability and violence. And it's talking about how many times people will say, well, people with disabilities are vulnerable. As if they're the reason they're being abused. This book, the two authors will be talking about it's really the systems that need to change. It's not people. We need to do better. And part of that is providing sexuality education and empowering people with disabilities. So that's a free workshop as well. And then we also have one on Tinder, Grindr, and more. Supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities who are dating online as well. We have some great workshops coming up. Like I said, if you go to Elevatus Training, the pop-up will happen and you can put your e-mail in and you'll get information on upcoming events and also articles that I write. You know, I send them out. Oh, yeah. My info. Oops. Where'd it go? There it is. There's my contact info as well. And yes. I'll leave my contact info up. But anybody in the chat, something that you would like to do or plan to do in order to promote sexual health of the students that you're working with or maybe your own children. Like one thing you would like to do to promote sexual health. Oh, thank you. Thank you for that comment. Yeah. career. Anything people are going to do? Tomorrow, next week? Generally just try and reduce shame. There you go. There is a lot of shame and if we can change our approach and not think of it as this shameful topic and this bad thing and that it's a healthy, positive part of people's lives. Speak with families so I can see if they will have the school remove the belt around his pelvis at school. Great. Okay. And refresher sex ed courses for parents. Yes, great idea. Yeah. Parents need help too, right? I mean, maybe some don't want their child to get education, but a lot of them do and they just don't quite know how to address it. So there's a whole resource list for parents too.