Attitudes toward Blind People among Theological and Education Students

Attitudes toward blindness among education and theological students are examined in this article, specifically the differences in attitudes toward blindness between education and seminary student groups; between conservative and liberal student groups; between first- and third-year seminary student groups; and between the sexes. Subjects were 213 graduate education students at the University of Pittsburgh and 175 graduate theological students enrolled in six selected seminaries. The Disability Factor Scales-Blindness (DFS-B) and selected items from the Polyphasic Value Inventory (PVI) were utilized. The results obtained are: Graduate education students do not differ from graduate theological students in their overall attitudes toward blindness, but education students do react more unfavorably to Rejection of Intimacy dimension; conservative students react more unfavorably to blindness than do liberal students; and students in the two conservative seminaries have more unfavorable attitudes than those in the liberal seminary; third-year seminarians indicated more definite presence of Rejection of Intimacy and Distressed Identification dimensions than first-year seminarians; and female students show more favorable reactions to blindness than do male students.