Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire

Alice Wong curates an anthology that centers the lived experiences of disabled, neurodivergent, and chronically ill people regarding human connection. The collection uses first-person essays and creative pieces to document caregiving labor, sex, dating, and community interdependence. Contributors analyze how biological and chosen families navigate assistant roles, how medical equipment integrates into physical intimacy, and how systemic barriers shape personal relationships. The writing focuses on the mechanics of mutual aid and the specific communication strategies necessary for maintaining bonds when traditional social scripts fail to account for accessibility or body autonomy.

Readers searching for non-medicalized perspectives on disability will find a record of survival and pleasure that operates outside of mainstream norms. This book serves those interested in social justice and interpersonal sociology who want to understand the logistical and emotional realities of communal care. Anyone seeking to unlearn rigid definitions of independence will finish the text with a clearer understanding of how vulnerability functions as a foundation for collective resilience. The reader gains a toolkit for reimagining intimacy as a collaborative practice rather than a private commodity.