A few years after a young woman in her 20s launched Romania’s first dating website for disabled people, most users report forming emotional bonds, with several even falling in love and getting married. While some say socialization is the least of concerns for people with disabilities, others say the site can overcome social stigma prevalent in everyday society to connect Romanians with and without disabilities.
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by Luciana Grosu Reporter, Monday - February 27, 2012
BUCHAREST, ROMANIA – Andreea Maria Szabo, who is in her 20s, says she found her husband on Romania’s first dating website for people with disabilities.
Before the website, she says dating was difficult because she has Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a group of progressive nerve disorders. She tried general online dating sites, but she says that the men she met were eventually deterred when they learned of her disease, which causes loss in muscle strength and touch sensation in the feet and legs and sometimes in the hands.
“Even those people who seemed to accept me at first gradually withdrew,” she says. “It was really tough telling people about my disability.”
She says her luck changed with the creation of DizabilLove.ro, the first Romanian dating website for disabled people.
Her husband, Daniel Szabo, 25, is not disabled. A Romanian Internet technology specialist, he is an adminstrator and moderator for DizabilLove.ro.
“I have learned about the volunteering opportunity with DizabilLove.ro while searching for a paid IT job,” he says. “I liked the idea of being able to contribute and offer hope to disabled people, so I signed up.”
His volunteering paid off when he received a message from his future wife five months after joining the site.
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