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

"We want to go out, we want to have relationships,” Dateability co-founder Jacqueline Child, who became disabled due to chronic illnesses, tells PEOPLE

• Two Colorado sisters launched Dateability, which bills itself as “the only app for the disabled community and chronically ill communities”

• The sisters got the idea in 2021, after Jacqueline Child — who had just gotten a feeding tube — found herself worrying about dating, specifically going out to dinner

• “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," says Alexa 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 her gastroparesis, 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.”

By October 2022, Dateability, which bills itself as “the only app for the disabled community and chronically ill communities,” went live. The app features traditional swipe options and "❤️" and "X" buttons to press if users are unable to swipe, as well as the ability to check off their disability or a chronic illness in a "Dateability Deets section."

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There’s also a $4.99 subscription service allowing users 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?’ ”

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

Along with her gastroparesis, Jacqueline has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a connective tissue disorder, as well as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, trigeminal neuralgia (a neurological facial pain disorder) and primary 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.

“Those [sorts] of comments kept happening,” she says. “So even if I did meet someone and they wanted to give me a chance, either their friends would convince them not to date me or their family would, or they would just realize that it felt too stressful to date someone like me.”

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Another time, when Jacqueline matched with a man on a popular dating app in 2019, she says that she was taken aback by his response after learning she was on crutches due to a knee surgery she'd had, which was related to her EDS.

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."

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“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.

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.”

Given Dateability’s accomplishments, Jacqueline says they continue to be “driven” by “every success story.”

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

Waldman, 35, who has epilepsy following a 2012 car crash and a traumatic brain injury, says he first spotted Fegley, 39, on another dating app, but decided to message her after finding her profile on Dateability.

“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 called Limb-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 had Glycogen storage disease type 4, a genetic disease that causes a buildup of a complex sugar called glycogen in the body’s cells.

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.

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.

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“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.”

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