Hussein Al-Nasrawi 22, Bay Area, Boston – is Autistic and looking for love and decided to join the world of online dating.
Rula Al-Nasrawi writes in The Atlantic about her brother’s experience of online dating.
Rula Al-Nasrawi explains that for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), online dating is:
“an alternative to picking up people at bars or parties and risking potential in-person rejection.”
Jeremy Hamburgh is a New York-based dating coach, he observes his clients attempting to ‘date’ and then offers feedback. Hamburgh also runs Adaptations, which is a series of workshops that teaches life skills to people with developmental disabilities through the Manhattan Jewish Community Center .
He is quoted in the article as saying:
“One of the things that I work on with my online dating clients is trying to break through the stigma of autism by explaining what my client struggles with and what he or she is great at,” Hamburgh says.”
The article states that the social stigma of ASD is something that Hussein and others grapple with regularly and that Hussein has reservations about mentioning the fact that he is Autistic to potential dates.
He tells The Atlantic:
“At the moment I don’t want to reveal that I have Asperger’s because some people who are already on OkCupid will think that ‘this person has a disability,’”
The full article can be read here