"I know that people won't judge me here, I just need to be myself," said a user named Rehn, who said he felt excluded from popular dating apps.
Developed for people with an IQ between 50 and 69, the app has a simplified interface with a user profile, a talk page and a help button.
Staying isolated from the online world
"On other platforms I was hiding my disability because when people find out I have a disability they don't want to talk to me, whereas this is a big part of who I am," said Rehn, who lists her hobbies as well as her photo on the app.
DigiVi, short for "digital us" in Swedish, was developed by the Swedish National Association for People with Intellectual Disabilities.
"Unfortunately, many people with disabilities, especially people with intellectual disabilities, are excluded from the digital world because the internet is complicated," said Magnus Linden, one of the app's founders.
"Those who need help in their daily lives often also need help in their love and sex lives," Linden added.
"It's comforting to know that not everyone can download the app," said Therese Wappsell, a person with mild intellectual disabilities who participated in the development of DigiVi, noting that people like her can easily become "vulnerable to violence."
The app's co-founder, Aline Groh, points to concerns that disabled users are under pressure to send explicit photos on casual dating sites.
"There is a risk of abuse against people with disabilities and it is often harder for them to ask for help and get support," Groh said."On DigiVi, we can easily see if someone is causing a problem and take action," Groh said, adding that inappropriate content on their platform is checked by moderators.The DigiVi founder said that users who engage in such behavior in the application can be excluded, and that such situations are shared with the police when necessary.
Love between people with disabilities
In recent years, the love lives of people with disabilities and autism have been the subject of television programs such as "Love on the Spectrum", "Born this Way" and "Down for Love".
"I think it's important for people to see that we can find love too. The disabilities don't matter, it's the feelings inside that matter," explained Rehn, a DigiVi user who is disabled herself.The founders of DigiVi, which launched in November and has 180 regular users, want to have representatives in every city in Sweden to expand across the country.In Sweden, about one percent of the population has an intellectual disability, about 5 percent are autistic and 15 percent have some form of disability.
