The 1994 National Study on Sexuality Issues Among Women with Physical Disabilities focuses on a broad range of sexuality issues facing women with physical disabilities. The project consisted of two phases, a qualitative interview study of 31 women with physical disabilities and a national survey of 940 women, half with a variety of physical disabilities and half without disabilities. The first phase involved in-depth interviews with 31 women with disabilities; the women were recruited through personal contact and by fliers distributed locally and nationally. The purpose of the qualitative study was to determine the parameters of sexuality as viewed by the population. From this preliminary study, a questionnaire was developed. In Phase II (the survey archived here), this questionnaire was administered to 940 women nationally, evenly split between women with and without physical disabilities. Domains of inquiry reflect the five thematic groups identified in the qualitative study: sense of self, relationships, barriers, information, and health and sexual functioning, as well as sexual functioning, disability status, psychological factors, social factors (social status and social attitudes), and environmental factors.

The original study contains approximately 300 variables examining respondents' experiences with abuse, threatening experiences, and parenting. These data were not available to RADIUS for archiving, and interested researchers should contact the original investigator. Overall, this study contributes significantly to the relatively small body of research on the effects of physical disabilities on disabled women's courtship, sexual, and reproductive behavior.