Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

Negative perceptions can lead to social and professional exclusion of disabled individuals. Negative perceptions of disability are especially detrimental to disabled academics (Brown & Ramlackhan, 2022). Research specifically examining the perceptions of disabled instructors is lacking. This study reviews factors influencing student perceptions of people with disabilities and provides insight for promoting the individual and professional development of people with disabilities in instructional roles in higher education. We recruited 109 undergraduate college students to participate in this study. Participants completed the study on-line using the Qualtrics platform, and they were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. For the experimental condition, the video displayed a 12-minute lecture in which the instructor appears to be blind. For the control condition, the video displayed the same lecture presented by the same instructor, without the instructor appearing to be visually impaired. Following the video, participants responded to a brief attention and comprehension check. Then, participants completed measures evaluating professor competence and warmth (Smith & Anderson, 2005; Anderson & Kanner, 2014), as well as affective and cognitive evaluations of the lecture. Finally, participants responded to a measure of overt ableism, the Interactions with Disabled Persons Scale (Gething, 1991; Thomas et al., 2003). Students who observed the disabled instructor (m = 23.79, SD = 4.297) lecture reported significantly higher levels of perceived competence then students who viewed the able-bodied lecture (m = 22.19, SD = 4.67), t (107) = -1.859, p < .05, d = -.356. There was no difference between the two groups on perceived warmth, or evaluations of the lecture. These findings are inconsistent with previous literature showing individuals with physical disabilities being perceived as less competent than their able-bodied counterparts (Minks et al., 2024). These findings could be affected by social desirability bias. Replication of this study should include a measure of social desirability. This study should also be replicated using examining behavioral or developmental disabilities as the literature suggests that the public has more positive perceptions of individuals with physical disabilities.

Document Type

posters

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Download

Share

COinS
 

Perceptions of Disabled Instructors

Negative perceptions can lead to social and professional exclusion of disabled individuals. Negative perceptions of disability are especially detrimental to disabled academics (Brown & Ramlackhan, 2022). Research specifically examining the perceptions of disabled instructors is lacking. This study reviews factors influencing student perceptions of people with disabilities and provides insight for promoting the individual and professional development of people with disabilities in instructional roles in higher education. We recruited 109 undergraduate college students to participate in this study. Participants completed the study on-line using the Qualtrics platform, and they were randomly assigned to one of two conditions. For the experimental condition, the video displayed a 12-minute lecture in which the instructor appears to be blind. For the control condition, the video displayed the same lecture presented by the same instructor, without the instructor appearing to be visually impaired. Following the video, participants responded to a brief attention and comprehension check. Then, participants completed measures evaluating professor competence and warmth (Smith & Anderson, 2005; Anderson & Kanner, 2014), as well as affective and cognitive evaluations of the lecture. Finally, participants responded to a measure of overt ableism, the Interactions with Disabled Persons Scale (Gething, 1991; Thomas et al., 2003). Students who observed the disabled instructor (m = 23.79, SD = 4.297) lecture reported significantly higher levels of perceived competence then students who viewed the able-bodied lecture (m = 22.19, SD = 4.67), t (107) = -1.859, p < .05, d = -.356. There was no difference between the two groups on perceived warmth, or evaluations of the lecture. These findings are inconsistent with previous literature showing individuals with physical disabilities being perceived as less competent than their able-bodied counterparts (Minks et al., 2024). These findings could be affected by social desirability bias. Replication of this study should include a measure of social desirability. This study should also be replicated using examining behavioral or developmental disabilities as the literature suggests that the public has more positive perceptions of individuals with physical disabilities.