‘Pete and I met on Intro Line. I called him to me and the Universe brought us together. He is the one true love of my life. Pregnant with our second child, I feel complete. I’m happy in a way that I’ve never been before.
This body has finally done something right. My disability is irrelevant where it really counts. I’m all woman. I can give and receive sexual pleasure. I have the ability to create and to nurture human life. I can love. That’s what matters in the end.
People with disabilities love just like anyone else. We have the right to a sex life. But we also have the right to relationships and family. Children are the natural expression of love. They enhance our lives and bring meaning to existence.
We are often denied the right to such fulfilment. Ableist attitudes make it hard for us to form intimate relationships. Our society has a long way to go. But we must not allow that to stop us from finding happiness. What I have is worth fighting for. My family relationships are the ultimate celebration of my life. I survived incarceration. Now, twenty years later, I am giving myself permission to be free.’
KATIE BALL, Melbourne VIC Australia, 2000
Katie Ball is a front-line activist with twenty years experience in the disability rights and social change movements. She is a qualified secondary teacher, a community development worker, a wife and a mum. She has worked in the phone sex industry and taught Politics of Disablement at Kangan-Batman TAFE. Totally fascinated by human sexuality, Katie upholds the right of all people with disabilities to social and sexual equality. She has spoken at many forums and written a library-based dissertation on the sociological analysis of sexuality and the disability rights movement. She is bisexual and describes herself as a raving nymphomaniac. Katie was featured in the award-winning television documentary ‘Untold Desires’, and her photos have been published in Picture Magazine. Katie has Kugelberg Welander Syndrome (Juvenile Spinal Muscular Atrophy) and uses an electric wheelchair for mobility. The trauma of institutionalisation at the age of fifteen has left her with Separation Anxiety Disorder, Generalised Anxiety Disorder and Anxious Attachment. She lives with depression and continues to suffer panic attacks as a result. Katie passed away in 2004 at the age of 39.
Peter Vanderfeen is Katie’s partner. He has a visual impairment as the result of an industrial accident. He has volunteered his time and energy to many different organisations. He is a husband, a father and ‘a bloody good fuck.’
Harley Vanderfeen-Ball is two and a half. She loves The Wiggles and she absolutely adores trains. She has fun in the bath. She never draws on the walls. She can say lots of big words like ‘concourse’ and ‘shopping’. Harley is a highly social person with a wonderful nature. She loves other kids and is really looking forward to the arrival of her new baby brother.
River Vanderfeen-Ball is still in the womb.