Disability models and attitudes among college students with and without disabilities.

Abstract

Unfavorable attitudes or stigma toward people with disabilities are invisible barriers that contribute to social inequities such as disparities in higher education enrollment and degree completion. Additionally, disability models, or underlying beliefs about whether disability is a problem inherent in individual biology (medical model) or a social construction (social model), are previously unexamined factors that may contribute to disability attitudes in higher education and beyond. We compared disability models and attitudes in college students with and without disabilities. Further, we examined the role of disability models and demographics in predicting attitudes about disability. Undergraduates at a public university (n ϭ 1,762) completed survey measures of the variables described previously. As predicted, students with disabilities held significantly more favorable attitudes toward people with disabilities, lower medical model beliefs, and higher social model beliefs than students without disabilities. A regression revealed that lower medical model and greater social model beliefs predicted favorable attitudes toward people with disabilities above and beyond demographics. Analyses indicated that disability model beliefs completely mediated differences in attitudes toward disability between students with and without disability, controlling for demographic factors. This is the first study to demonstrate that people with disabilities have different models of disability compared with people without disabilities and that disability models predict disability attitudes. Results suggest that students with disabilities experience a cultural mismatch in higher education regarding disability models and attitudes. Increasing disability representation from a social model perspective in higher education may improve cultural fit and education outcomes.

Towards another kind of borderlessness: online students with disabilities

“…However, the application of this model in online learning was not successful partly because of its individualised methods of learning (e.g., asynchronous learning) (Woolgar, Coopmans & Neyland, 2009), thus models such as Universal Design for Learning (UDL; USDE, 2010) -a model that reduces barriers for participation and provides appropriate support embedded in the learning structure -have been widely employed in online learning (U.S. Department of TOWARDS ANOTHER KIND OF BORDERLESSNESS 17 Education, 2010). Indeed, in the face-to-face setting, SWD had more favourable attitudes towards PWD than students without disabilities (Bogart, Logan, Hospodar & Woekel, 2018).…”

Born that way or became that way: Stigma toward congenital versus acquired disability

“…According to this model, disability occurs because societies tend to be constructed based on the assumption that everyone is nondisabled and functions according to a culturally constructed norm or ideal (Wendell, 1996). Previous work shows that describing race as a social construction reduces prejudice (Williams & Eberhardt, 2008), and belief in the social model is associated with lower stigma and greater support for disability social policies (Bogart, Logan, Hospodar, & Woekel (2018); Dirth & Branscombe, 2017).…”

Enablers and barriers encountered by working-age and older adults with vision impairment who pursue braille training

“…Through the anecdotes of participant interactions with members of the public, a subtle yet clinically significant distinction begins to emerge. When blindness is viewed through a medical model lens [73] (as a stigma or impediment), braille is by extension also viewed as an outward symbol of deficit: "I didn't think I was that bad yet" (Seth); "I felt at the time it (white cane) was already drawing attention to myself" (Stephanie). On the other hand, when blindness comes to be viewed through a social model lens [73] or as "simply a part of who [you are]" (Ellen), then braille by extension is perceived as a symbol of independence that empowers the user: "it [learning braille] felt so liberating … almost like being given my heritage finally" (Ellen).…”

“…When blindness is viewed through a medical model lens [73] (as a stigma or impediment), braille is by extension also viewed as an outward symbol of deficit: "I didn't think I was that bad yet" (Seth); "I felt at the time it (white cane) was already drawing attention to myself" (Stephanie). On the other hand, when blindness comes to be viewed through a social model lens [73] or as "simply a part of who [you are]" (Ellen), then braille by extension is perceived as a symbol of independence that empowers the user: "it [learning braille] felt so liberating … almost like being given my heritage finally" (Ellen). What participants illustrate through their comments is that braille can become entangled and inseparable from the self-identity that adult braille learners with acquired vision impairment must negotiate.…”