Attitudes Toward Disability in the Helping Professions

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the ethnic and religious perspectives of people who are training for and working in the helping professions regarding disability and people with disabilities. An inference is that these perspectives effect the ways in which personnel in the helping professions react to and deal with people with disabilities. The Modified Issues in Disabilities Scale (MIDS) was administered to a sample of persons working in the helping professions and/or training to enter them. The scores on the MIDS can be viewed as a knowledge inventory about persons with disabilities or as a scale measuring attitudes toward persons with disabilities. A statistically significant association was found between ethnic and religious perspectives and the scores on the MIDS. The conclusion is that people preparing to enter and people presently in the helping professions, but more importantly teachers of people studying to enter the helping professions, must be aware of the influence of ethnic and religious perspectives and how to counter any negative effects which are to be found.