Contact with Mainstreamed Disabled Children and Attitudes Towards Disability: A multidimensional analysis

Attitudes towards disabilities of 156 hearing students who experienced different levels of contacts with mainstreamed hearing impaired students were evaluated by a multi-dimensional questionnaire, the Disability Factor Scale—General Forty-four subjects were studying in the same classes with hearing impaired students (high level of contact), 57 students were studying in the same school but not in the same classes with the hearing impaired students (moderate level of contact) and 55 subjects did not have any contact with hearing impaired children. Subjects who had a moderate level of contact expressed more negative attitudes than subjects of the two other groups on a scale which measured the tendency to advocate segregation of disabled people and to hold a derogatory approach towards them. Subjects of the group with a moderate level of contact tended to attribute more functional limitations to disabled persons than subjects who had a high level of contact. No differences were found between attitudes of subjects who experienced high level of contact and of those who had no contact. These results are discussed in relation to the characteristics of the different contact situations which the three groups of subjects had and the affective, behavioural and cognitive-evaluative components of their attitudes.