What most people fail to realize is that disabled people can love like any other person. They are capable of feeling that emotional high when attracted towards another person, disabled or not. You have to remember that just like you, they are human beings who yearn for companionship, romance, and a life full of surprises. As lovers, disabled people are capable of being warm, caring, and compassionate—perhaps more than the average “normal” individual, who often takes for granted all five senses he or she possesses.

Finding love online

With the popularity surge of online dating sites, more and more disabled people are emboldened to meet and date other people online. These online dating sites make it a whole lot easier for disabled men and women to meet potential lovers and life companions.

Getting ready to meet and date

The introduction phase is very important when dating disabled people. Assess, albeit discreetly, how comfortable your date is with his or her disability. Doing so will help you understand and get to know your date better and would allow you to move forward with your relationship.

There are also a couple of things to consider when going out with a disabled person. When planning to dine in a restaurant for example, and your date is on a wheelchair, make sure that the restaurant is equipped with wheelchair-friendly facilities such as a ramp to the entrance. If your date uses a cane or uses crutches, make sure that there is enough room near the table you have reserved.

Also, be sensitive of your date’s needs. Try to understand his or her emotional reaction to and outlook regarding the disability. Try to learn how he or she copes with it. If you feel uncomfortable and you don’t know where to begin, there are a number of websites that offer a lot of helpful information for those who date disabled people.

If you have wallowed in self-pity for a long time because of your disability, now is the time to say “Stop.” Know that there are a lot of opportunities waiting for you, and there are so many things left for you to do. You are just like any other person, except that you navigate the world using a really cool machine – your wheelchair.

You may own a transport wheelchair, a manual wheelchair, a power wheelchair, or even a mobility scooter. Whichever ride you have, you can choose to travel and see the wonders of the world.

Yes, you can be a tourist and tour the world in style. In fact, there are a lot of travel programs and agencies dedicated to travelers with special needs. Traveling for people with disabilities has gone a notch higher; it has become a trend nowadays to temporarily swap your wheelchair-friendly home with another traveler’s, who shares the same needs as you. This way, you are assured that the home in which you will be staying while on vacation has assistive furniture that would work for your convenience.

There are also a lot of great places to discover that are recommended for those in wheelchairs and even for the slow walkers. This is good, because you can visit a tourist spot and take your time to enjoy the sights. Coordinate with your friendly travel agent to learn more about these spots.

Do not be afraid to see the different tourist attractions that the world offers. Connect with other people who are going through the same experience and you will see that you are still very lucky. Find these people in online communities and in networks and forums.

And while you are at it, you might want to consider a group travel tour. Not only would this be fun, you would also get to know more people, and in the process, build lasting friendships among people who understand how you feel. 

If you’re familiar with Professor Charles Xavier of the X-Men, then you must think the current crop of wheelchairs are quite ancient and prehistoric. Professor X doesn’t have to vigorously push on tires or press anything to get his wheelchair moving. In fact, the thing floats on air as seamlessly as if it were flying. While this is the Marvel universe, you must envy the level of technology they have to be able to come up with these wondrous things for the physically disadvantaged.

You actually don’t have to look that far, as Professor X-like wheelchairs may just be flooding the market soon. A smart wheelchair is one that is designed specifically for people who can’t use the conventional mobility aids in moving a conventional wheelchair. It has an artificial, computerized control that sort of auto-pilots the wheelchair in lieu of user control, with the ultimate task of reducing the burden on the user. It has infrared sensors, sonar, or computer vision to spot obstacles and thus modify the person’s route to cope with it. These things assist in navigation and stops the user if he or she has directed the wheelchair to come face to face with an obstacle. Taking this a step further, some smart wheelchairs even have robotic arms to hold common household objects and get door handles.

Now verging on science fiction, some models of smart wheelchairs for specific people actually have the ability to interpret small muscular activations and execute them as high-level commands. Yes, mind control and artificial intelligence.

Smart wheelchairs are usually for users with cognitive impairment, like dementia, or motor disabilities, such as cerebral pulsae or paraplegia (what Professor X had).

Today, however, because of the high specialized nature of the invention, the price of smart wheelchairs can be pretty steep. So while the first batch of these nifty inventions were delivered in 2000, it is still very much uncommon today.