They say love has no limits and the couple that we at F+T would like to present to you today should warm your heart and renew your faith in humanity.  Shane, a disabled man and his able-bodied fiancée open up about their sex life in an intimate video to fight the 'damaging stereotype' that inter-abled couples can't be intimate. 


'He's a lot less fragile than he looks!' - Hannah Aylward, 24


Our inter-abled couple, Shane Burcaw, 27 and Hannah Aylward, 24, go into detail about how they manage intimacy in their latest video shared on the 'Squirmy and Grubs' channel on YouTube. 

Shane, is a writer and was born with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (S.M.A), a neuromuscular disease that causes muscles to deteriorate over time. He has been in an electric wheelchair since he was two years old. He can barely move his legs, arms and hands. His health condition restricts him to a wheelchair. Shane and his fiancée Hannah released a video on their youtube channel (Squirmy & Grubs) with the aim of increasing the awareness of people with disabilities as sexual beings capable of pleasing their able-bodied partners. The channel covers a range of inter-abled relationship challenges but we're interested in the sex today.

The assumptions, they say, are harmful to potential disabled lovers. The soon-to-be-wed couple opened their sex life to us in the name of education and also to answer questions from their many fans.

The video was full of intimate confessions such as Hannah stating that she was afraid of hurting Shane when they first started dating. She would timidly ask permission to move any part of him before attempting it. A relationship like this, they explain, relies heavily on communication to make sure they're both satisfying each other, physically. This is a piece of advice that we could all take note of, in honesty.

Shane has previously detailed in an older blog post that he is 'perfectly capable of having sex.' He and Hannah have also spoken about their desire to have children together. 

'A lot of people assume it doesn't exist,' Hannah said of the physical side of their relationship. 'That's a really damaging stereotype for all disabled people when you assume that disabled people aren't sexually active.

Shane and Hannah talking to their fans about sex

Their incredible relationship started with an email, in which Hannah reached out to compliment Shane's sense of humour and his writing before eventually confessing that she found him 'very cute'.
Their relationship developed over FaceTime and text messages which eventually lead to mutual feelings of desire. 


The couple are generally quite private about their sex life but there is 'a lot of wrong information out there'. They explain there's stigma surrounding disability and intimacy that they wanted to dispel.

In the clip, they used the word 'intimacy' as an umbrella term to 'refer to any number of sexual acts' to keep from divulging too much.'When we say intimacy, we mean sex. We mean other sexual acts,' Shane noted. 


''I get boners and my boners shoot sperm, so having kids is a real option,' he wrote on his blog. 

Hannah said many people incorrectly assume that 'disabled people aren't sexually active.
The first question that the couple answered came from a disabled woman in an inter-abled relationship. She became disabled when she was married, and she wanted to know how Hannah prevents injury to Shane. Hannah admitted that she was somewhat afraid of hurting Shane when they first started dating, saying she would ask to move any part of him before doing so.'I remember you being like, "I don't want to break you,"' Shane recalled, joking that he would tell her: 'Just break me, go ahead.

"I was somewhat afraid of hurting Shane when we first started dating"

On the subject of displaying affection, while Shane can't get up to give Hannah a hug, he will call her over and ask her to lean in so he can kiss her or hold her hand. Hannah describes her husband-to-be has a 'very outgoing personality' and is really affectionate. 

Hannah noted that he is 'a lot less fragile' than he looks, while he added that he is also 'very mindful of his own safety'. Even after years together, he still reminds Hannah to be careful when she is putting his socks on for him. 'Shane is very cautious about his body movements — and you verbalise it,' she said. 'I pretty much know how every single part of your body can move and to what extent and to what direction. I know his body as well as I know mine now. 'The couple did, however, admit that years ago Hannah had him screaming in pain 'at the end of intimacy' after she leaned in to give him a kiss and squished his elbow.Another fan asked if their sex life has benefitted from their need for constant verbal communication, and they both agreed that able-bodied couples should strive to be just as communicative.

The couple doing something questionable with a sausage.

'I think our sex life does benefit from that and saying what both of us want and figuring out how to get it,' Hanna said. 'Because I think a lot of the time if you're doing cookie-cutter whatever, it might not be completely what both people are dreaming of having.' 

Shane added: 'When I'm on the giving end of intimacy, I am very prone to be like, 'Is this good? Is this fine? How's this? Is this alright?" Hannah is often like, "Shut up."'

One of their fans asked if Hannah feels like she is the 'dominant' one in the relationship because she has to comfort Shane and initiate intimacy, but she insisted that isn't the case.  

'I like to be physically affectionate,' he said. 'I am always doing whatever I can to embrace Hannah.'


'I am always doing whatever I can to embrace Hannah,' Shane said 

It's always great to see couples working together to build love and supporting each other regardless of the adverse conditions they might face. the discrimination and stigmas that they have had to overcome, this truly is a wonderful modern tale of love. That's it for today's insight into the un-conventional lives of two people in love. Feel tree to browse and read more articles of real life's fascinating people.