Disabled husband and able-bodied wife explain how they approach sex

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By VT

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A disabled husband and able-bodied wife have given their followers a little glimpse into their marriage - namely how they go about intimacy.

Shane Burcaw - who has spinal muscular atrophy - and his wife Hannah - who is not disabled - dedicate much of their lives to documenting their relationship on their YouTube channel titled Squirmy and Grubs.

The 30-year-old has been a wheelchair user since the tender age of two. He met Hannah, 27, online after the latter reached out to him in an email after learning about his story in a documentary.

Before Shane met Hannah, his parents acted as his primary caregivers, but when the two started getting serious, the responsibility became Hannah's.

Now the happy couple has taken to educating the internet on the ins and outs of interabled dating.

In a video the two posted in May 2020, titled "Intimacy & Disability - How We Make It Work", Hannah referred to the idea that disabled people do not and cannot be sexual as a "damaging stereotype".

Shane, who recently celebrated his seven-year anniversary with Hannah, explained that they get a lot of questions from people about their sex life that "show that there is a lot of misinformation, a lot of stigma about disability and intimacy."

Shane also clarified that by "intimacy", they mean "sex" or "sexual acts".

He made sure to ask their subscribers to respect their privacy and refrain from delving too far into the specifics of their sex life.

One of the questions the couple addressed in their video was about preventing injury during sex - taking into account Shane's disability.

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Stock image of a wheelchair user. Credit: gre jak / Alamy

Hannah admitted that she had a real "fear" of unintentionally hurting her much smaller, wheelchair-bound husband during sex.

She said: "We definitely talked about it, I would ask before I moved any part of you, you know?"

Shane responded: "Yeah, I remember you being like. 'I don't want to break you.'"

Eventually Hannah realized that he is "a lot less fragile than he looks."

"And obviously our intimacy doesn't always look like the cookie cutter image of intimacy, but we find ways that work for us," she said before Shane cheekily told their viewers that he wanted to tell the story of a time when she did "hurt" him.

The two described the incident as having happened "many years ago" when they first started dating - despite them both being careful.

While they were enjoying intimacy together, Hannah's knee "smushed [Shane's] arm in," which led to Shane screaming as he thought it had broken his elbow.

He said: "It was severely hurt for three days. It didn't break, I think I pulled a muscle or sprained a tendon."

Featured image credit: Wavebreakmedia Ltd UC5 / Alamy

Disabled husband and able-bodied wife explain how they approach sex

vt-author-image

By VT

Article saved!Article saved!

A disabled husband and able-bodied wife have given their followers a little glimpse into their marriage - namely how they go about intimacy.

Shane Burcaw - who has spinal muscular atrophy - and his wife Hannah - who is not disabled - dedicate much of their lives to documenting their relationship on their YouTube channel titled Squirmy and Grubs.

The 30-year-old has been a wheelchair user since the tender age of two. He met Hannah, 27, online after the latter reached out to him in an email after learning about his story in a documentary.

Before Shane met Hannah, his parents acted as his primary caregivers, but when the two started getting serious, the responsibility became Hannah's.

Now the happy couple has taken to educating the internet on the ins and outs of interabled dating.

In a video the two posted in May 2020, titled "Intimacy & Disability - How We Make It Work", Hannah referred to the idea that disabled people do not and cannot be sexual as a "damaging stereotype".

Shane, who recently celebrated his seven-year anniversary with Hannah, explained that they get a lot of questions from people about their sex life that "show that there is a lot of misinformation, a lot of stigma about disability and intimacy."

Shane also clarified that by "intimacy", they mean "sex" or "sexual acts".

He made sure to ask their subscribers to respect their privacy and refrain from delving too far into the specifics of their sex life.

One of the questions the couple addressed in their video was about preventing injury during sex - taking into account Shane's disability.

size-full wp-image-1263202018
Stock image of a wheelchair user. Credit: gre jak / Alamy

Hannah admitted that she had a real "fear" of unintentionally hurting her much smaller, wheelchair-bound husband during sex.

She said: "We definitely talked about it, I would ask before I moved any part of you, you know?"

Shane responded: "Yeah, I remember you being like. 'I don't want to break you.'"

Eventually Hannah realized that he is "a lot less fragile than he looks."

"And obviously our intimacy doesn't always look like the cookie cutter image of intimacy, but we find ways that work for us," she said before Shane cheekily told their viewers that he wanted to tell the story of a time when she did "hurt" him.

The two described the incident as having happened "many years ago" when they first started dating - despite them both being careful.

While they were enjoying intimacy together, Hannah's knee "smushed [Shane's] arm in," which led to Shane screaming as he thought it had broken his elbow.

He said: "It was severely hurt for three days. It didn't break, I think I pulled a muscle or sprained a tendon."

Featured image credit: Wavebreakmedia Ltd UC5 / Alamy