Disability Studies Quarterly Spring 2003, Volume 23, No. 2 pages 132-149 <www.dsq-sds.org> Copyright 2003 by the Society for Disability Studies |
Attitudes Toward Disability in the Helping Professions David Pfeiffer, Ph.D. *Nancy B. Robinson is also Assistant Professor, Department of Special Education/Communication Disorders Program, San Francisco State University. |
Abstract
Many persons in the helping professions try to separate disability and
people with disabilities, but such a separation is valid only if one looks
at a specific person. The concept of a person with a disability embodies
the phenomenon of disability and the two can not be separated. This study
is about the phenomenon of disability and the social group called people
with disabilities. They cannot be separated. It must be kept in mind that many people in the helping professions are threatened if the sincerity of their actions relating to people with disabilities is described as hollow and their actions are seen as not helpful. Part of their identity is being a person who is seen as working hard to help unfortunate persons, people with disabilities. They feel threatened if such a basic part of their being is questioned. There are many ways to explain this feeling of being threatened, but that is not the purpose of this study. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether ethnic and religious perspectives can influence views of disability and persons with disabilities. Literature Review Age and Contact The Study The Sample An Explanatory Model Conclusions
References Abberely, Paul. (1987) The Concept of Oppression and the Development
of a Social Theory of Disability. Disability & Society, 2(1): 19 55.
Acknowledgements Financial support for this work was provided by the following projects at the University of Hawai`i at Manoa: the Project for Minority Assistance and Pacific Partnerships (MAPP) funded by the US Department of Education; the Maternal and Child Health Bureau's Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities program funded by the HRSA, US Department of Health and Human Services, MCH B, MCJ #159342; and the Pacific Partnerships in Disability and Diversity Studies, US Department of Education, grant number H325E980037 98. In addition support was provided by the Center on Disability Studies of the University of Hawaii at Manoa; the University of California at Chico; and the Frank Sawyer School of Management of Suffolk University. The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the authors. We thank Dr. Elaine Makas for her permission to use the MIDS in our work. Her address, for further information about the MIDS, is 10 Sheffield Ave, Lewiston, ME 04240. She is a member of the faculty of the Lewiston Auburn College of the University of Southern Maine. This study was determined to be exempt from review by the institutional review board of the University of Hawaii at Manoa. David Pfeiffer is the editor of the Disability Studies Quarterly and resident scholar at the Center on Disability Studies. Anna Ah Sam, M.P.H., is a faculty specialist at the Office of Student Equity, Excellence and Diversity at UH Manoa. Her areas of interest include recruitment and retention of under represented students, program evaluation, and campus diversity. Nancy B. Robinson, Ph.D., recently joined the faculty in the Department of Special Education and Communicative Disorders at San Francisco State University where she teaches in the areas of augmentative and alternative communication, language development, and collaborative practice. Her primary research interests are in the areas of cultural diversity and disability studies approaches, as applied in professional practice. Prior to moving to California, she worked with the Center on Disability Studies at the University of Hawaii and participated in outreach programs throughout the US Pacific Island nations. Katherine Ratliffe, Ph.D., is a pediatric physical therapist with a doctorate in educational psychology. She has been a faculty member at the Center on Disability Studies at the University of Hawaii since 1993. Her teaching and research interests lie in the areas of children and adults with developmental disabilities, interprofessional collaboration, the role of families, and cross-cultural studies, especially cultures of the Pacific Islands. She has authored a textbook, Clinical Pediatric Physical Therapy: A Guide for the Physical Therapy Team (Mosby, 1998), and does frequent training and consultation with indigenous peoples across Micronesia around their children with disabilities. Norma Jean Stodden, Ph.D., is the Interdisciplinary Training Director at the Center on Disability Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Dr. Stodden is Project Director for the Pacific Partnerships in Disability and Diversity Studies, a minority leadership training program for an interdisciplinary group of doctoral students. Martha M. Guinan, MPH is the Co-Director of the Pacific Voices Project for the University of Hawaii Center on Disability Studies. The Pacific Voices is developing a curriculum for uses of technology in the Pacific classroom. She is also Co-Chair of the Pacific Rim Conference on Disabilities, the premier conference on disability issues in the Pacific. She is interested in the issues that families of people with disabilities face and how they deal with them, inclusion in the classroom and community, and the uses of assistive and adaptive technology in accomplishing inclusion. |
Disability Studies Quarterly (DSQ) is the journal of the Society for Disability Studies (SDS). It is a multidisciplinary and international journal of interest to social scientists, scholars in the humanities and arts, disability rights advocates, and others concerned with the issues of people with disabilities. It represents the full range of methods, epistemologies, perspectives, and content that the field of disability studies embraces. DSQ is committed to developing theoretical and practical knowledge about disability and to promoting the full and equal participation of persons with disabilities in society. (ISSN: 1041-5718; eISSN: 2159-8371)