Improving Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons

The degree to which physical education majors’ attitudes toward disabled persons improved after taking an adapted physical education course was examined in this study. Participants included 179 undergraduate students from a large university, some of whom were exposed to course lectures, clinic contact with disabled individuals, relevant films, disability simulations, and readings. A Solomon four-group design was used. Two groups received the course in adapted physical education (pretest-posttest, n =47; posttest only, n =45), and two control groups were not enrolled (pretest-posttest, n =44; posttest only, n =43). Data were collected using the Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons Scale (Yuker, Block, & Younng, 1966). The results indicated significant change of the two treatment groups, leading to improved attitudes toward disabled persons. Secondary findings included the reactivity to pretesting for students in the experimental condition and no statistically significant effects of gender and age.