Disabled people have sex. Why can’t the NHS understand that?

When the consultant conducting a smear test assumes a wheelchair user isn’t sexually active, that isn’t just an insult – it’s downright discriminatory, says James Moore

Wheelchair user Kat Watkins says the consultant conducting her smear test assumed she was not sexually active because of her disability – and that she had ‘a very odd shape’ (ITV)

As epithets go, “No sex, please – we’re British” died a death some time ago. But “no sex, please – we’re disabled”? That’s still very much alive.

Kat Watkins, a wheelchair user from Wales, has told the BBC how, during her smear test, a doctor assumed she was not sexually active because of her disability – she has osteogenesis imperfecta, which creates brittle bones. Watkins says the insult was compounded by another remark, that she had “a very odd shape”.

Even as someone who has suffered indignities at the hands of the medical profession, I found this quite the shocker. But I think I know where it comes from.