Can typical students define the word “disability”? A pilot study about their knowledge or misconceptions Marina Louari UNIVERSITY OF THESSALY GREECE 3 rd WCLTA OCTOBER 2012 BRUSSELS- BELGIUM

Disabled students are being integrated into the regular school environment Inclusion depends on positive attitudes and interaction between typical students and those with disabilities Behavioural and emotional problems emerge because of rejection Acceptance and friendships with peers influence positively children’s behaviour

When an intervention program is implemented : attitudes turn to be more favourable increase awareness of disabilities remove prejudices provide opportunities for social interaction

Children’s perception of the word ‘disability’ has rarely been studied For that reason, this study has been designed in order to: investigate typical students’ concepts examine the existence of misconceptions clarify misconceptions eliminate bias

Sample:Eighty-five, 9-11 years old, students participated Instrument: a)12 pictures (vignettes) which depicted boys and girls, with or without disabilities. A short text accompanied every picture and there was the same question in every set “Is this child a child with disability? b)interviews

Results 95.2% physical disability 58.8% mental retardation 58.8% Down syndrome 52.9% blindness 50.6% hearing impairment 41.2% autism 45.9% identified a girl with a broken leg as disabled 22.4% thought obese boys were disabled

Interviews verified previous results They explained that the girl with broken leg is disabled because “she can’t move and she must have crutches or she must sit on a wheelchair”. Also, according to students’ beliefs, “obese boys are disabled because they cannot move properly and they cannot participate in playground games”. They believed that mental retardation and the Down syndrome was the same.

They must attend a special school because “they cannot understand mathematics or learn history”. “A special education school is the best solution for those children” “There, there are children who face the same problems and have the same abilities” “There, they have the opportunity to make friends” “In general education school they cannot have friends”

Typical students believed that sensory impairments “are a kind of illness not disability”and “an experienced doctor may help them”. “Otherwise, they must find a way in order to communicate effectively”. As far as autism is concerned, none of the nine-year-old students have ever heard this term and as a result they did not know what it was.

Discussion Results reveal a gap in typical students’ knowledge They tend to associate disability with technical devices They are unable to understand the behavior of a child with autism None of them have stated the possibility of having a classmate with disability

These findings make us think more seriously about the consequences of the inclusion of a child with disability in a mainstream classroom We highlight the importance of awareness and the improvement of their acceptance of their disabled schoolmates

For that reason, we are going to design an intervention programme in order to improve not only awareness but also attitudes. Before that, we are going to assess the students’ awareness and investigate their attitudes towards peers with disability. We strongly believe that such programmes should be implemented in every school.

Typical students should understand that disability is not the real reason for the disabled students’ exclusion but it is the society that perpetuates the bias and negative attitudes towards them.