Perception and Experiences of Disability amongst Able-bodied Postgraduate

students: A Sample Survey

Mira K DesaiAssociate Professor and HOD-Additional Charge,

Department of Extension EducationSNDT Women’s University, Juhu Campus,

Mumbai

Assumptions

• Mainstreaming disability demands contribution of able-bodies people.

• ‘Disability’ is an ‘experience’ and if a person has experienced it, it would increase chances for integration of ‘normal’ people with people with dis/ability.

• Perceptions and opinions of able-bodied people will impact how persons with disability become part of society.

objectives

• to understand ‘experience’ and ‘perception’ of ‘disability’ among able-bodied people.

• To know the understanding about the concept of ‘disability’ and disabled people among able-bodied people.

• To know perceptions and opinions of able-bodied people about disability and disabled.

Methodology

• Method: Sample Survey• Sampling: Incidental• Sample: PG Students of SNDTU• Sample Size: 50• Tool: Questionnaire• Data Analysis: Percentages and

Dispersion

Sample Profile

• Subject Backgrounds: Media, Clinical Nutrition, Human Development, Early Childhood Education, Women’s Studies, Extension Education, Food Science & Nutrition.

• Family background: Half of students had highly qualified parents, majority having homemaker mothers and working/businessman fathers.

• Born at 21 different geographical locations from West, North and East of India.

Understanding about Dis/Ability• Recurrent words: ability-inability, normal-

abnormal, participation-impairment-performance and words like quality, attributes, abnormality, defect.......

• Some of the students had more complex understanding like ‘gifted children’, ‘different abilities’, ‘mental state’, ‘participation limitation’, ‘different from set standards of the society’.

• No accurate understanding of volume of disabled population, geography, nature or type of disability

Experiences about Dis/Ability• Visually impaired people were ‘experienced’ most by 56

percent students, half of them had dealt with physically impaired and 42 percent had interacted with people with ‘special needs’.

• Only one forth (24%) reported to have ‘ever felt disabled about themselves’ majority (76 %) never experienced disabled about them ‘self’.

• Only four out of ten students reported to have dealt with persons with disability either at home or at school/college.

• Eight out of ten students had helped person with disability whereas one fifth reported that they had never helped anyone with disability.

Perceptions & Opinions

• Half of the students reported that they feel ‘sad’ about disabled and 14 percent stated feeling of ‘nothing’ about them.

• One fourth of the students do not want society with disabled persons wherein rest accept that it is ‘not possible’.

• Four in ten students feel disability is difficult to overcome.

Visibility of Disability

• Majority (62%) stated that they were not aware about persons with disability.

• Four in ten students reported about disabled people having achieved ‘something’ and most interestingly half of them referred to ‘personal contacts’ yet one forth gave ‘generic’ references .

• Social media is helping spread awareness as those knowing about achievers, came to know about them online.

Main Findings

• Majority of the postgraduate women students had not experienced ‘disability’ and even large majority had no first-hand experience of dealing with people with disability.

• Large majority had helped people with disability occasionally mostly in public sphere for tasks like crossing road, filling up forms, writing class notes, helping complete small tasks.

• Students perceive it as an undesirable, sad.

Interlinked REALITY

Perception

EXPERIENCE

Opinion

Construction of Disability Reality

Distorted Perception

Lack of EXPERIENCE

Not so Positive Opinion

Recommendations

• Interpersonal sources are most effective and accurate for disability experience for able-bodied people.

• It is necessary to orient, intern, stay with, assist person with disability to experience disability.

• For disability sensitization, able-bodied people should be ‘exposed’ to disability conditions.

• Sensitization is key to communication.