14. life, love, & dating with a disability

hi hello hey, welcome to the season of looooove.

Full disclosure: back in early August 2020 when we had just started this beautiful little pod, we had the idea to do an episode about dating… and were dreading it ever since lol. The idea seemed daunting and a little personal, but now that it’s recorded and released, we’re so happy we made it. Dating with a disability is always a juicy topic, so we wanted to give a little view on our approach to dating — like when we disclose our disabilities and why — along with our personal philosophies. We really hope you enjoy this episode wherever you’re at in your love life!

As we say in the episode, bear in mind that our opinions and experiences are our own. This episode does not represent every disabled person’s thoughts and feelings on dating.

episode summary

First, we start this episode with our usual small talk with Case updating us about some shows she’s watching. Then, we give a quick disclaimer and talk about how we disclose our disabilit(ies) both online and in person. After that, we move into our “hot takes,” or our philosophies on rejection due to our disabilities, singleness, and “the one.” Finally, we end with a game of “dating this or that” with a handful of questions.

side by side of cassandra (left) and casey (right) dressed in valentines day attire. cass balances on one foot and has her face toward the camera, smiling, she holds a chocolate in one hand and a heart shaped balloon that says "te amo" in the other. case wears a hot pink sweater with a black bow and holds a heart shaped box of chocolates
Cass + Case celebrating Valentine’s Day, 2021

show notes

  • Case mentions she’s been watching two of Cass’s favorite shows that Cass has mentioned on the pod before: “She-Ra & The Princesses of Power” (end of episode 4) and “Jane the Virgin” (episode 12). Catch them both on Netflix!
  • Cass then mentions “Steven Universe,” a cartoon they adore, again mentioned on episode 12 and in our intro episode!
  • This episode came out on February 9, 2021, the week of Valentine’s Day, and it’s our 14th episode! How serendipitous!
  • Throughout the episode, Case and Cass both reference episode 6 on chronic illness. Give it a listen for context on the additional health problems we have
  • Cassandra mentions Girls with Guts, an amazing organization for women with Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and ostomies
  • Casey plugs episode 13 when we mention our dogs as another kind of relationship
  • Cassandra mentions a 2017 article interviewing a blind woman she knows talking about the challenges of online dating when blind (Washington Post). Happy update: two and a half years after this article came out, she got married! It’s completely possible to find love with a disabilit(ies), if you so choose 🙂

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