 Disability advocates would reject this conclusion for at least two reasons. First, it is the stigmatization of disability-related needs, more than the actual cost of meeting them, which serves as a barrier to intimacy. The stigmatization of disability-related needs creates an aversion to meeting those needs and a tendency to exaggerate the costs of doing so. There is an inclination to see meeting those needs as falling outside the scope of an intimate relationship, when meeting relevantly similar needs of a nondisabled relative are seen as part and parcel of intimate relating. By subsidizing personal assistance, the state helps to overcome the exclusionary effects of deeply entrenched social attitudes that pose a barrier to intimacy. If these attitudes change so that the dominant culture does not find it shameful to have disability-specific needs and distasteful to meet them, there might well be less need for personal assistance programs. The remaining need for personal assistance would not sharply distinguish persons with disabilities from friends and intimates who also call upon each other for various forms of assistance.