About Us




disabledfreinds.com


Simply: A free, long-awaited, global and fully interactive online community for disabled people.

Disabledfriends.com is a global, fully interactive and unified virtual portal for disabled people, allowing them to create new friendships and build relationships within their own community and further a field; a central and secure area to discuss issues that affect disabled people in their daily lives, as well as a place to provide a support, offer advice and assistance. This to be achieved through interactive discussion forums, live geographical and topic talk rooms, message and entertainment centre.


Great caution and care has been taken in tailoring it to suit the needs of all, from functionality and accessibility to visibility and usability. Disabledfreinds.com has opened a fresh and exciting new window for disabled people at both a local and global level.


History in the making

Mr Lawrence Roper, a qualified adult placement carer, has had a long history of caring for disabled people. This has been clearly evident in the 20 years he dedicated in raising his disabled nephew, Darren. Apart from Darren he has four other disabled people in his family and continues to offer his unconditional support to them. Lawrence biggest challenges facing this kind of responsibility has been the lack of social services dedicated to helping disabled peole which others take for granted. Such as creating and meeting new friends, visiting places of entertainment in groups, as well as the ability to talk in debates, participate in global forums about things that may effect them.

Lawrence relentlessly scoured the internet for such a unified and comprehensive area that addressed this lack of service, but there was nothing. He spoke to many people both in the UK social services and in the disabled community and it quickly it became quite clear what a huge problem this is for disabled people everywhere. He raised the idea of a dedicated internet site with the authorities and organisations that represent disabled people. They were hugely enthusiastic but couldn't take it on as a project themselves because no funding was available. So he decided to use his own savings and tackle the issue myself for the benefits of others worldwide. He has spent more than £60,000 initiating disabledfreinds.com, after collaborating with and obtaining the positive views of groups and organisations that represent disabled people.

Disabledfriends.com has been aided considerably by a specialist focus group to create and develop a secure & robust web site, and a steering group of advisors on issues affecting disabled people, with the aim of making disabledfreinds.com a global success.

There are more than 10.6 million disabled people in the UK alone, many of whom are computer literate and depend on their computer for communication and entertainment. Disabledfriends.com will address this problem by offering local and global friendship services, take and share experiences online, arrange meetings and build local and worldwide relationships, in a secure environment. The site will include an entertainment section, an information resource with links to relevant agencies and in the near future, offer a wealth of global information regarding specialised holidays, transport, health & safety, accommodation, legal issues and work etc. Membership is free and the site will not carry advertising. There will be a minimal charge for higher levels of membership, giving access to special features or provisions. In the disabled community, nobody can understand why such a service does not already exist.


Testimonials

Entrepreneur Action UK mentor, David Fisher, has complete faith in this unique project and its potential and says "there is a real possibility that disabledfriends.com will create not just a community for people with disabilities, but grow to become a powerful force representing their views, needs and problems. We wish it every success".

Kevin - nickname 'Bald Eagle' hotlips....5@mns.com "Hello there. I only stumbled across this site by accident last week and I can only wish that I had found it sooner. It is fabulous, your support, admin and other staff are great, fantastically helpful. What a change to find somebody that values disabled people for what they are. you are brilliant every last one of you.......AOL and some of the others could learn a thing or two about service from you all. Keep it up"

Monica - Disability News & Views Radio Show in New York "I just found out about the website and what you offer is fabulous! I am a mother of 11 year old son with Asperger Syndrome and this sounds like a great group for him to get involved with......I would like to share your website with listeners and on my website too. Again, thanks for offering a website to people with disabilities that really makes a difference!"

Claire Jennings - claire.jen....@dsl.pipex.com "Hi there, firstly my thanks for setting up what could potentially be a great unifying arena for disabled people: and it's great to see it came from the UK too! .....Thanks again for your hard work in setting this up"

John Low - john.cart....@tesco.net "May i say that is a good chat box well done keep up the good work"

Adrijana Prokopenko - aproko....@yahoo.com "Thanks a lot for registering me on your website. I really like it and hope to meet many new people there. "

Jez - jez.....@cebridge.net "Hi. I want to thank you for this! I didn't realize it was one person who took on this major project! Just read about how this came about and can't tell you how far my jaw is hanging still. This is so awesome. Just wanted to thank you :)

" Kevin - edwards19.........@yahoo.co.uk "I would like to congratulate you on your fantastic site. It has opened up a new world to me and has helped me to make friends with so many people who i never would have met otherwise. Yours, Quirky1"