Towards a More Inclusive Society: A Scoping Review of Interventions and Policies for Changing Attitudes Towards People with Disability

Abstract

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities establishes that changing community attitudes is key to improving the experience of people with disability. We conducted a scoping review of studies of interventions to change knowledge, attitudes or behaviours toward people with disability. Results are presented within the six outcome areas of Australia’s Disability Strategy and categorised based on level of intervention, types of intervention and types of policy. Most interventions were at the organisational, community, and intrapersonal levels and consisted of education, training or modelling. Service provision, legislation, and guidelines were the main types of policy to implement attitude change. We found very little evidence of interventions at the governmental and interpersonal levels and no reference to other types of policies. We conclude that changing attitudes and behaviours about disability requires a combination of complementary intervention types, policy types and levels of intervention.