The affective-sexual education of people with functional diversity has been and, in some contexts still remains, a topic for debate. In recent years there has been much progress from a social point of view regarding the acceptance of their right to have a healthy sexual development, but for the moment we do not yet have the information necessary to design specific actions that are sufficiently effective according to their characteristics and specific needs. It is a very heterogeneous group where aspects such as the degree of autonomy or intimacy are very determined by the adults who are in charge, that is, parents and professionals. In this symposium we analyze the peculiarities and difficulties with which we find when we seek to gather information about the experience of sexuality from different sources: parents, professionals and the users themselves, establishing a comparison between adolescents and adults with different types of intellectual disability. It presents the differential circumstances in these aspects that have marked two experiences of affective-sexual education carried out one with adolescents and another with adults. The general conclusion behind these experiences leads us to stress the need for information and collaboration in all three areas if the objective is to design an effective and realistic intervention.

Mª Dolores Gil Llario is an associate professor at the University of Valencia and accredited as a professor by ANECA since 2015. Her scientific career, started in 1995, has focused on Health education. She has published several articles in relevant scientific journals (17 in Q1), as well as chapters in books in which she has been coordinator several times. She has participated in 17 research projects in which, most of the times, she has been principal investigator. She has directed 5 doctoral thesis and she has obtained an Honorific mention in the Call for National Prizes for Research and Educational Innovation 2007/Convocatoria de Premios Nacionales de Investigación e Innovación Educativa de 2007 (ORDER ESD/3378/2008 november 14). In addition, she has contributed to national and international congresses with more than 150 works. Regarding her teaching experience, she participate in several official masters in which emphasize Cognitive Neuroscience and SESN/Neurociencia Cognitiva y NEAE (being director in the first edition); Psychological Intervention in Social Area/Intervención Psicológica en el Ámbito Social, both of them belong to the Universitat de València; Psychopathology, Health and Neuropsychology/Psicopatología, Salud y Neuropsicología from UJI; and two Master of Health/Máster General Sanitario one from Universitat de València and the second one from UJI. Moreover, she has participated in the Master of special educational needs/ Máster de Necesidades Educativas Especiales, a postgraduate from Universitat de València, in its 18 editions. She has received different research awards such as one given by the Government Territorial Department of Valencian Region/Dirección Territorial de la Comunidad Valenciana in Scientific Dissemination for SALUSEX-UNISEXSIDA group in which she is a co-founder and coordinator in Valencia headquarters. Concerning academic management, she has developed different positions such as President of Academic Degree Committee/Comisión Académica de Títulos, Subdirector and, afterwards, Director of the Teacher’s training college/Escuela de Magisterio.