Encarna Conde does not fit the profile of your average silicone enhanced, pouting porn star. At 45, she is a late entry to that group of women who seek fame or fortune by performing sexual acrobatics and faking orgasms for the camera.Her first film, Breaking Barriers, is, however, already the subject of debate on internet chatboards and has even had entire pages dedicated to it in the Spanish press. The reason for the fuss is that Encarna is a wheelchair user who has a musclecontrol disorder called ataxia. She is also president of the Association of Andalucian Ataxia Groups.

Her decision to appear on screen with professional porn actors came after she wrote to Spain’s biggest porn producer to complain that disabled people never featured in his films. Antonio Marcos, whose X Canal company’s productions include titles such as Vice Mansion, Give it to Me Baby and How to Make Your Own Porn Movie, agreed to hold a casting for aspiring disabled porn stars.

Nobody, however, presented themselves so Encarna volunteered. ‘There are plenty of meaty encounters,’ reported a journalist from El Mundo newspaper.

‘It was very pleasant, though I was somewhat cowardly,’ says Encarna. Unusually for a porn film, however, Breaking Barriers ends with a serious conversation between Encarna and her producer. ‘Disabled women have to take steps forward and one should always be happy if one breaks a barrier,’ she says.

‘Everybody, whether they are disabled or not, has the right to make their own sexual choices,’ she says. Attempts by Spanish journalists, and The Observer, to interview Encarna have failed. El Mundo reported that her daring and controversial move into the world of pornography had caused ructions within her own association. ‘We demand the right to decide on our own lives, without depending on other people who, simply because we have functional problems, take power over our lives, desires and future,’ her website says.

Her association’s site does not mention the film, but comments – both snide and praising – on its chatboard appear to be directed at Encarna herself. ‘Good luck with your great challenge,’ says one. ‘This lady is a born fighter, she knows what it is to suffer and have so many things against her,’ says another.