Sexual scripts of people labelled as “intellectually disabled”

This article is based on a qualitative survey held by interviews with people considered as “intellectually disable” and specialised social workers in France and Switzerland. It presents a typology of the sexual scripts developed by “intellectually disable” people in the context of promotion of the “sexual health” concept which is presently spreading in the environment of specialized education. The results operate a break with the dominant representations by deconstructing the specificities lent to the sexuality of “intellectually disable” people. Whereas their sexual behaviours are almost systematically explained by their disability only, the analysis shows that the various categories of sexuality observed are not peculiar to the “disable” people. On the other hand, it highlights the influence of the “intellectually disable” labelling on their sexual life and consequently demonstrate the socially constructed character of this sexuality.