Disabled people negotiate gender, sexual identity and self-directed social care support in England: how does choice and control operate?

Abstract

Putting disabled people in charge of their own support was a central component of the UK personalisation agenda. Austerity, staff recruitment difficulties and local authority retrenchment have meant that the experience for disabled people has not always lived up to the rhetorical promise. In this context, disabled people with marginalised sexual and/or gender identities face difficult choices in everyday interactions of support that trouble the idea that control routinely sits with them. In this article, we draw on two research studies with disabled people who use self-directed support in which they discuss navigating gender and sexual identity. In both studies, there are opportunities for disabled people to draw on support that is empowering, but we also hear about ‘bad bargains’ that they are sometimes forced to make. We argue that the hard-won goals of choice and control are being degraded and confronting LGBTQI+ and non-binary disabled people with sometimes impossible dilemmas.