Abstract
Various health promotion strategies have been implemented in South Africa aiming to encourage
young people to talk about issues of sexuality and HIV with their parents/caregivers. Although
parent/caregiver sexual communication may be an effective method of influencing sexual behaviour
and curbing the incidence of HIV, very little is known about how young people with disabilities in
South Africa communicate about these traditionally difficult subjects with their parents/caregivers.
Based on findings from a participatory study conducted amongst 15 to 20-year-old Zulu-speaking
youth with physical and visual disabilities, this paper explores how they perceive youthparent/
caregiver communication about sexuality and HIV. Using Foucauldian discourse analysis, the
paper outlines how disabled youth-parent/caregiver sexual communication is governed by cultural
customs, sexual secrecy and constructs of innocence. It also argues that the experiences and
perceptions of young people with disabilities are critical to the development of future interventions to
assist parents/caregivers develop communication strategies that help disabled young people make
sense of sexual behaviour.