To understand the effect of HIV on people with disabilities one must look at the status society awards them in relation to HIV and AIDS, the sexual practices of this group, as well as their knowledge, attitudes, practices and their access to HIV and AIDS prevention programs.Issues linking disability and HIV and AIDS can be grouped under:

• sexual practices
• vulnerability and issues of sexual abuse
• lack of accessible information/ lack of knowledge
• lack of services that are disability friendly (i.e. are inclusive and welcome the participation of disabled people and are not judgemental in their attitudes and are accessible in all aspects of their operation)

The projects consist of two independent, but equal, components:

• A study of knowledge, attitudes and practices of people with disabilities in relation to HIV and AIDS and sexuality; and an assessment of access to voluntary counselling and testing services (VCT) by people with disabilities.
• A study of the extent to which organizations of and for people with disabilities are dealing with HIV/AIDS, and general HIV prevention programmes, and the extent to which disabled persons are catered for, or excluded from, these programmes (PhD study).

The project is funded by South Africa-Norway programme for research co-operation.
Timeframe: 2007-2009.

The research represents a joint effort by:

• University of Stellenbosch (SUN) (Department of Psychology), South Africa
• The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), South Africa
• SINTEF Health Research, Oslo, Norway
• Disabled People South Africa (DPSA)