Actions speak louder than words. You don’t even need to mention the D word to actually go on a date!
Step One: Select something exciting that you’d like to do with your beau.
Why? Studies show that when we spend time with people in adrenaline heightened situations we find them more attractive, and they will find us more attractive too. This will give you the chance to go on an “invisible date.” You know it’s a date but they don’t! For them, you just had a fun time out together. For you, it is the first step in getting to know them better and deciding if you want to take this relationship further and into the bedroom.
From there you can just keep getting to know them with more “invisible dates.” When you are clear you want to take things further, go in for a snog. After the first kiss it is clearly time to start using the D word and not long after that you can graduate to calling them your boyfriend/girlfriend!
Was this question misunderstood? I thought the ‘D word’ was ‘disabled’?
At what point when dating do you disclose a disability, or the extent of a disability? Especially with dating websites it can be tricky! Would somebody turn and leave if they turned up to a date and found out about your wheelchair/hearing aid/crutches or some other visible marker of disability? When do you disclose a history of or current mental health problems?
I briefly tried online dating, and felt I ‘had to’ mention the ‘burden’ of being a wheelchair user. I felt it ‘wouldn’t be fair’ to the other person if I didn’t address it in my profile. As a result, the responses I got were either other disabled people (nothing wrong with that, but does feel pigeon-holed), or fetishists who had a thing for wheelchairs!