Prior Contacts and Perception of the Deaf by the Non-Deaf in Nigeria

The study examines the impact of non-deafs' previous contacts with the deaf on their perception of the deaf Data was collected through structured interviews of S34 randomly selected non-deaf respondents residing in Southwest part of Nigeria. A bout 60 percent of these respondents have had varying contacts with the deaf Two hypotheses were tested. (1) that respondent who have had contact with the deaf will perceive the deaf more favourably than those who have had no contact; (2) that respondents who have had intimate contacts with the deaf will perceive them more favourably than respondents who have had transient contacts with the deaf The two hypotheses were rejected.