Sisters Create Dating App to Give People with Disabilities, Chronic Illnesses a ‘Safe Space’ to Find Love, ‘Feel Seen’

Mar. 15, 2025

Alexa and Jacqueline Child.Photo:courtesy Jacqueline Child

courtesy Jacqueline Child

After a series of frustrating dating experiences, a Colorado woman and her sister launched a dating app that they say has helped hundreds of people with disabilities and chronic illnesses find connection.

In 2021, when Jacqueline Child — who says her multiple chronic illnesses have led to her disabilities — got a feeding tube as a result of hergastroparesis, or stomach paralysis, which she worried would make dating even more challenging.

“All of my first dates had been going out to dinner, going out to eat or whatever, and with a feeding tube, I don’t eat on a regular basis and the food is not the center of my world anymore,” Jacqueline, 30, tells PEOPLE. “I couldn’t imagine how anyone would be understanding.”

After relaying this concern to her sister Alexa, a 34-year-old public interest attorney, Jacqueline says Alexa had an idea: “Let’s just create our own dating app, because there’s going to be other people in the world who are looking for something like this too.”

Dateability, which bills itself as “the only dating app for the disabled and chronically ill communities,” went live in October 2022. The app allows users to select “X” or “❤️” icons to sort through potential connections and check off a broad list of terms that describe their disability or chronic illness in a “Dateability Deets” section.

Dateability app features.Dateability

Dateability

There’s also a $4.99 subscription service to filter more specifically, but Alexa insists they are an “inclusive app" — and the sisters say that the ability for people to disclose their disabilities and chronic illnesses on their own terms provides comfort and makes them “feel seen.”

“The fact that it’s encouraged is something that people are not used to,” says Alexa, who is also Jacqueline’s roommate. “They’re used to having to hide it, or [wonder] ‘How much do I say on my profile’ or ‘Do I have to spend my bio explaining my chronic illnesses rather than who I am as a person?’ ”

Jacqueline Child.courtesy Jacqueline Child

Jacqueline shares that before creating the app, being open about her disability led to some uncomfortable and painful moments.

Along with her gastroparesis, Jacqueline hasEhlers-Danlos syndrome, a connective tissue disorder, as well aslupus,rheumatoid arthritis,trigeminal neuralgia(a neurological facial pain disorder) andprimary immunodeficiency.

She says that once, a man told her that after telling his family about her, they didn’t want him to keep seeing her.

In response, Jacqueline says the match said that he hoped she didn’t “want to have children," because he felt like it was “selfish to pass on my condition.”

“I said that I wasn’t sure and that maybe I wanted to adopt,” she says. “And he said, ‘Well, good luck finding a guy who shares that vision.’ And that was the end of it.”

“That was the first time that I had really been told something like that, and it was really heartbreaking,” adds Jacqueline.

Jacqueline and Alexa Child.courtesy Jacqueline Child

Alexa says they’ve talked to users who were even too afraid to go on dating apps.

“They were afraid of rejection. They were afraid of making themselves vulnerable,” she shares. “Dateability has given them that hope and that safe place, and it’s allowed them to dip their toes in the dating pond and get experience.”

One of those stories is of Tina Fegley and Tyler Waldman who matched on the app in February.

Waldman, 35, who has epilepsy following a 2012 car crash and a traumatic brain injury, says he first spotted Fegley, 37, on another dating app, but decided to message her after finding her profile on Dateability.

Tina Fegley and Tyler Waldman.Courtesy Tina Fegley

Courtesy Tina Fegley

“We just kind of hit it off,” he tells PEOPLE. “I don’t remember the exact content of all those messages, but it seemed like we really connected.” The Maryland man now continues to visit Tina, who lives in Pennsylvania and is a wheelchair user with a form of muscular dystrophy calledLimb-Girdle.

Another match that found a fast connection was Shane Narayan, 36, and Rachel Bookman, 30, though it was tragically short-lived.

Back in December 2023, Narayan came across Bookman’s profile on Dateability. Both were in wheelchairs. He had a spinal cord injury, while the Pennsylvania native hadGlycogen storage disease type 4, a genetic disease that causes a buildup of a complex sugar called glycogen in the body’s cells.

Shane Narayan and Rachel Bookman.courtesy Shane Narayan

courtesy Shane Narayan

The two exchanged messages and then FaceTimed before he eventually traveled from California to meet her in April. He says that the original plan was to stay for a couple of weeks, but that turned into two months, and they soon found themselves talking about talked marriage and even children. Their disabilities expedited their “priorities in life," he explains

But he was home preparing to move to Pennsylvania, Rachel was in the hospital. Tragically, she died in July.

Though he lost the love of his life, Narayan credits Dateability with giving him a new outlook on life.

Rachel Bookman.courtesy Shane Narayan

And while Jacqueline hasn’t found love yet, she says the app has left an impact on her too.

“My confidence has increased so much,” she tells PEOPLE. “I used to be so ashamed of having a chronic illness and even having to tell a stranger that I was chronically ill, and I will still sometimes struggle with those thoughts, but I’ve really tried to accept it as just a neutral part of me.”

Though the sisters agree there is still a long way to go for disability rights, they see Dateability as a way to help integrate these issues into the mainstream.

“We want to go out, we want to have relationships, and we’re forgotten,” Jacqueline says.

She’s now hoping other companies take notice, pointing out that “anyone can become disabled at any time, and you most likely will have some sort of disability or chronic illness as you age.”

Jacqueline adds, “It’s really important to include everyone in these conversations.”

source: people.com