A while back someone on the list asked about dating organizations
specifically for the "disabled"...I had been involved with one years ago and
had some success (obviously not much since I'm still a bachelor!  Grin.).
So when the subject came up again, I got curious and decided to try them out
again.  BIG mistake!  The few (very few) such organizations I've found out
there seem to me to be rip-offs, big time.  My advice is to run, wheel or
walk away as fast as you can from such organizations.

Sadly, both of the ones I tried are run by "disabled" folks preying on other
disabled folks.  They take your money then give you either worthless matches
or nothing at all.  (At least in my case.  As I said, years ago one of them
was run under different management and was quite good.  But today they
appear to me to be a sham.)

The first organization seems to be a one-woman show working out of her home.
She charged $100 and impressed me with a very in-depth interview on the
phone.  Unfortunately, she used nothing she learned from that interview in
the matching process.  I got exactly two matches for my money.  One match
was with an underage girl even though I am a middle-aged man!  (Nothing like
THAT in my interview!!)  The other was with a woman in another state who
turned out to have more than physical problems, though I'd asked not to be
matched with anyone with a history of emotional illness.

The other organization gladly took my money...but FAST...yet has never sent
me any potential dates in 6 months.  The membership was for 6 months (about
$10 per month, all told...You can't get less than a 6-month membership).
This was the organization I belonged to years ago.  At that time I got quite
a few matches, very quickly, and they seemed to actually match my requests.
Then the woman who'd been helping them out left, and the place went downhill
fast.  The last time (previous to this) I got nothing and thought it was
just a fluke.  This time, I realized it is probably an intentional fraud.
(I won't know for sure until I have the authorities check them out.)  They
send you (in my case) nothing for 6 months.  Then they say they will extend
your membership.  So, in effect, you have paid them for absolutely nothing.
When enough people do this, thinking "they'll send me something someday",
then they forget about it, you realize these people are getting lots of
money for doing absolutely NOTHING.

I've heard of some folks who DO receive matches...Always the very last month
that their membership is due to expire.  But the matches never have anything
to do with their requests.  And they are never in the same area.  (That is
another part of the "bait and switch" tactics.  When I was in New Jersey,
they told me there were no matches in the Northeast.  Everyone is located in
the South or California, because of the weather...Now that I live in South
Carolina they tell me everyone lives in the Northeast or out west.  Hmmm...)

Anyway, just wanted to warn y'all that, in the end you are better off
looking LOCALLY, on your own, than trusting these apparent rip-off artists.
If nothing else, it's sad that even if they don't intend to rip people off,
a business run by disabled folks is so incompetent.  They should get out of
business anyway rather than giving us a bad name.

Paul