Background: Women with disabilities in Zimbabwe face numerous challenges in accessing sexual and reproductive health. Cultural belief still regards them as not sexually active. The government has also failed to promote policies that facilitate access to sexual and reproductive services by women with disabilities.Objectives: The reseach objectives were to explore the challenges faced by women with disabilities in accessing sexual and reproductive health in Zimbabwe.Method: The data were gathered using in-depth interviews with 23 purposively selected respondents. Thirteen women had physical disabilities, five were visually impaired, three were deaf and two were stammering. The respondents with physical disabilities were using wheelchairs, walking frames, prosthesis, crutches and caliper shoes. The participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 45 years. All interviews were transcribed and translated verbatim into English, and passages were extracted from the transcripts. Key themes and concepts were identified and coded to offer a rich framework for analysis, comparisons and presentation of the data.Results: Negative perceptions of health personnel towards people with disabilities, disability-unfriendly infrastructure at health facilities and absence of trained personnel for people with disabilities (sign language) are some of the challenges involved.Conclusion: The government, in partnership with other stakeholders, should address challenges faced by women with disabilities when accessing sexual and reproductive health services. Non-government, private hospitals and profit-making organisations should join hands with government in funding health requirements for women with disabilities.

Background: Previous research has highlighted widespread public mis/perceptions that portray women with disabilities (WWDs) as asexual, less likely to marry, and often not interested in childbearing. However, evidence from high-income settings shows that many WWDs are sexually active and do have or want to have children. Notwithstanding this, very few studies have focused on understanding childbearing desires and motivations among WWDs in low-income settings. This qualitative research explored childbearing desires and motivations among WWDs in Ghana. Methods: A cross-sectional qualitative study was conducted with WWDs aged 18–49 years in Northern Ghana. The distribution of participants by disability types were as follows: physical disability/impairment (n = 37); visual impairment (n = 11); speech and hearing impairment (n = 14); epilepsy (n = ten); and albinism (n = five). A pre-tested open-ended thematic topic guide was designed and used to conduct in-depth interviews. Interviews were tape-recorded and later transcribed for analysis. Transcripts were coded using QSR NVivo 11 software. Thematic content analysis techniques were used to analyse and present the data. Results: Nearly all the WWDs interviewed were sexually active, desiring to have children, and intended to have as many children as they could support. Strong desire to experience the joy of motherhood; fear of social insecurity; fear of old age economic insecurity; desire to challenge stigma and negative stereotypes about disability, sexuality and motherhood; and desire for self-actualisation, were key motivations for childbearing. Conclusion: Our findings challenge existing negative public perceptions about the status of WWDs in relation to sexuality, childbearing and motherhood. More importantly, our findings suggest that if the Sustainable Development Goals related to universal access to sexual and reproductive healthcare are to be attained, WWDs must be targeted with quality sexual and reproductive healthcare information and services.

This case study investigates strategies used by the NGO Leonard Cheshire Disability Zimbabwe (LCDZ) to promote the SRHRs of girls and young women with disabilities in Zimbabwe. The findings show that LCDZ employed a combination of six strategies. These are: (1) building practical knowledge on SRHRs; (2) increasing community awareness and sensitivity; (3) providing SRHRs-related education; (4) enhancing access to justice and related services for survivors of sexual violence; (5) delivering assistive devices; and (6) promoting the livelihoods and economic empowerment. LCDZ made use of multi-stakeholder partnerships to implement these strategies, leveraging complementary skills and experience in the promotion of SRHRs. In each of these strategies, girls and young women with disabilities are the target group, with other stakeholders brought together to support them.

The global population of people with disabilities is estimated to be around one billion which represents 15% of the population. It is further estimated that the majority of people with disabilities are found in developing countries to which the majority are women. Adding on to the challenge, 82% percent of disabled people live below the poverty line and can barely employ sustainable means of earning a living and neither can they widen livelihood options due to their circumstances. Thus, they are languishing in absolute poverty. Developing countries are lagging behind in promoting the economic rights of women with disabilities. This is mainly shown by their absence in formal employment because many developing countries do not have policies which facilitate the employment of women with disabilities. Women with disabilities in Zimbabwe are concentrated in light industry entrepreneurship. The majority are found in vending, buying, and selling of cloth and electrical items, others are involved in cross-border trading.

Women have experienced sexual abuse, and very few of them report to the police or seek other services, such as medical attention. This study aims to gain insight into the barriers women with disabilities face when accessing police, health, and counselling services after experiencing sexual abuse. Barriers such as long distances, physical barriers at service sites, communication barriers, gender issues, lack of confidence in the service providers, and an overall lack of resources were reported. In a study undertaken in Zimbabwe, women with disabilities encountered intersecting barriers such as the intersection of disability, and gender, poverty, unemployment, and low levels of education aggravated structural and social impediments for women with disabilities when seeking services after sexual abuse.

Over 120 million youth with disabilities around the world face challenges related to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services, such as unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, and forced abortions and sterilisations. The main causes are cultural, legal, political, and social practices that restrict their rights. Our study explored sexual expectations and experiences of youth with disabilities. We conducted a qualitative study of 20 youth with disabilities using focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews, and then applied a thematic analysis of the data. The findings reveal that youth with disabilities are discriminated against with regard to accessing SRH information. This early exclusion results in discriminatory treatment at other stages of their lives, such as the onset of sexual relationships and marriage. They may also indulge in risky sexual behaviours which expose them to sexually transmitted diseases. Conversely, engaging in relationships, marriage and parenthood brings positive results, especially to women with disabilities. Marrying a non-disabled partner is viewed by disabled men as countering social discrimination. Some of the experiences suggest that parenthood has potential for bringing new status and social capital to persons with disabilities. Our primary recommendations based on this research are that youth-focused SRH schemes need to be redesigned to serve the public health needs of youth with disabilities, a vulnerable population that remains excluded from programming; and girls and women with disabilities should be especially targeted within these redesigned SRH programmes.