Abstract
People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD), including those with significant support needs, continue to advocate for access to self-determination so that they can have choice and control in their lives. Under the purview of self-determination, people with I/DD should be able to determine how they express their gender. However, supporters sometimes enforce their own beliefs about gender, thus restricting people with I/DD to traditional gendered expectations of men and women. Through self-advocate stories and a review of research that has examined the experiences of gender-diverse people with I/DD, this article highlights the importance of supporting access to gender self-determination. I provide examples of how family members and professionals can support gender self-determination for people with I/DD, including those with significant support needs.
Keywords
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
