Claiming Sex Toys for People with Disabilities
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Sexual pleasure is good for your well-being!
Both the United Kingdom and Australia appear to embrace this view. Each country offers disability support funding that can cover the cost of sexual aids and sex toys for people with disabilities.
It’s also possible for people in the United States to purchase MysteryVibe vibrators using FSA/HSA cards.
Read on to learn how disabled adults in these countries may claim back money spent on sex toys.
Australia – National Disability Insurance Scheme
In Australia, people who have a disability due to a permanent impairment are eligible for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). In addition, the NDIS does cover sex aids for disabilities when they qualify as assistive technology.
As a reference, online retail store XES Products shares on its website that many of its products can be bought under the “Low Cost Assistive Technology” budget. It also provides additional information on ways customers can be reimbursed by NDIS.
Run by a Sydney couple with a background in rehabilitation and occupational therapy, XES Products sells sex toys and sexual aids from different brands. This includes supportive straps, sex chairs, as well as hands-free devices for vulvas and penises.
Each product listing includes a description of its specific accessibility features and why someone might benefit from them.
Luddi, the makers of the multi-use vibrating sex toy The Ziggy also make it possible for you to claim the cost of their product with its NDIS sexual wellness info page.
Bump’n is another Australian sex tech company helping its disabled customers get sex toys covered as therapy devices. Created by Andrew Gurza, a man living with cerebral palsy, Bump’n sells the hands-free, full-body sex toy pillow, the Bump’n Joystick.
According to Bump’n, anyone who is self- or plan-managed can use their NDIS funding to cover the cost of the Bump’n Joystick. More information as well as an NDIS order form is available at the Bump’n website.
United Kingdom – Personal Health Budget
Every person who qualifies as disabled in the United Kingdom receives a Personal Health Budget, which is a set amount of money to pay for products and services essential to their well-being.
In late 2021, UK-based company Hot Octopuss launched an awareness campaign to let more disabled people know that this can also include sex toys. Without a sexual aid, some people with disabilities are unable to masturbate and have no outlet for their sexual feelings.
In the first six months, COO Julia Margo estimates that 20 people claimed back the cost of sex toys for people with disabilities using the Personal Health Budget.
While she said no claims had been rejected to date, Margo added that Hot Octopuss would refund the cost of any denied sex toys claims.
Related Read: Lone Sex Toy Company Returns To UK’s Biggest Disability Event
Before Margo joined the UK-based sex tech company in 2018, she carried out policy research at think tanks. She gained insight into the personal health budget from a research team member who had worked on the policy.
“So I knew that the framework did not expressly say sex toys could be purchased but it also didn’t rule them out,” says Margo.
While the sex toys themselves are expensive, Margo says she thinks the slow takeoff is largely due to social stigma affecting demand.
In a promotional video for the campaign, disability activist Becky Dann talks about the importance of sexual expression. Dann, who appeared on the UK reality TV show The Undateables, was born with a profoundly curved spine that collapsed when she was ten.
“Growing up, people would just assume that I would never have sex and that it wouldn’t be part of my life, which always confused me as a teenager because I’ve always known that I had sexual desires and I would want to have sex—just as a lot of disabled people do,” she said.
“Self-love and self-expression is integral to a person’s mental and physical wellbeing and so we believe that you should be able to use your personal health budget to claim back on things related to sexual health.”
United States – FSA/HSA cards
Popular sexual wellness company MysteryVibe has made it possible for people in the United States to buy their sex toys with FSA/HSA cards. At the time of writing, only the Crescendo 2 and Tenuto 2 vibrators are available to buy using this method.
However, the green bendable vibrator Poco, meant to be a smaller version of the Crescendo 2, will be available to buy online with FSA/HSA cards in the near future, a MysteryVibe spokesperson told SexForEveryBody.com.
Sex toys for disabilities claims in Canada?
Similar disability coverage for sex toys is not available in Canada, the residence of Bump’n co-founder Andrew Gurza.
“We’re hoping to find a way to have insurance look at the disabled market in Canada and in the US,” Bump’n founder Gurza told SexForEveryBody.com on June 14 at the Glad Day Bookshop in Toronto.
The workshop covered pleasure for people with disabilities and accessibility in LGBTQ2S+ spaces, It was sponsored by We-Vibe and made possible by the company’s philanthropic Pride Fund.
“But the benefits system in the States and in Canada is really wonky and really weird. It’s really hard to get it funded that way,” added Gurza.
In the meantime, Bump’n’s Fund an Orgasm campaign takes donations to help buy the hands-free sex pillow for disabled folks who are cash poor.
Images sources: Hot Octopuss, Bump’n, Jenna Owsianik
Jenna Owsianik is a Canadian journalist and sex tech industry expert. She is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sex For Every Body®.
Her expertise covers state-of-the-art sex technologies and the major fields driving innovations in intimacy: robotics, virtual reality, remote sex (teledildonics), haptics, immersive adult entertainment, human augmentation, virtual sex, and sexual health.
A trained journalist with a Masters of Journalism from The University of British Columbia, Jenna’s reporting has appeared on Futurism.com, Al Jazeera English, CTV British Columbia online, CBS Sunday Morning, CBS 60 Minutes, Global News, and CKNW Radio in Canada and the United States.
