NEW YORK _ Juliana Fetherman's love for her brother Michael inspired a new, free social media website to help teens and adults with autism and other special needs chat with new friends.
Fetherman, 23, of Kings Park, created MAF, which stands for Making Authentic Friendships. It allows users age 13 or older to create a profile based on their age, interests, geographic locations, diagnosis and what level they function on. Users also indicate what they like to do, such as going bowling or to the movies. They can make an avatar of themselves as well.
Then, they can connect with other users; conversation prompts within the messenger _ such as, "What did you do today?" _ help to initiate chats. A caregiver also can create the profile. The app is monitored from the back end for inappropriate content or users, Fetherman says, but as with any social media app, it's recommended that teenagers' parents or caregivers be aware of whom they are interacting with online.
