Online Dating for People with Disabilities: A Scoping Review

Experiences of people with disabilities regarding dating applications and websites is sparsely addressed in the literature. Objectives of this scoping review were to ascertain the factors influencing the experiences of people with disabilities in relation to their use of dating apps and websites, as well as to identify solutions to improve their participation in online dating. All references in French or English published since 1993, reporting the experience of at least one person with a disability or a potential partner concerning the use of dating applications and websites to develop intimate relationships were included. Selection and extraction were performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis- Extension for Scoping Reviews criteria by two independent reviewers. Data were analyzed by coding according to the main categories of the International Classification of Functioning. Fifteen peer-reviewed studies and 51 Gy literature references were selected from a search of Medline, Embase, PsycInfo, CINAHL and Google. Thematic analysis revealed important themes, such as the Person Beyond Disability, Elicited Emotions, Self-Stigmatization, Safety Concerns with Online Dating, Potential Partner's Perception, Online Environment, Type of Applications and Websites, Compatibility Between Applications or Websites and Adaptive technology, Initiating Contact: for better or for worse, Using Applications and Websites Safely, Dating Online versus In-Person, Disclosing the Disability. Themes could be facilitators and barriers to online dating. Disclosure of disability is at the heart of the experiences reported. Possible solutions to improve social participation included education, improvements for applications and websites, and enhancing accessibility and security.