Changing Attitudes toward People with Disabilities: Experimenting with an Educational Intervention

Individuals with disabilities comprise approximately 20% of the US population and constitute a significant minority group (Bush, 2001; National Organization on Disability (NOD), 2002). They are relatively underrepresented in the workforce, however, in spite of technological advances and changes in the physical environments of most businesses and public settings due to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990 (Koss-Feder, 1999). Unemployment rates for people with disabilities, particularly people with severe disabilities, have remained stable at 70% for the past decade (Bush, 2001; Kennedy and Olney, 2001). Many advocates for the disabled, as well as individuals with disabilities themselves, believe that one of the primary obstacles to increased employment is the negative attitudes that employers and co-workers hold regarding people with disabilities (Chima, 1998; Kennedy and Olney, 2001; Koss-Feder, 1999). These attitudes, which often stem from negative stereotypes and a lack of accurate knowledge, prevent people with disabilities from getting hired, being employed in sufficiently challenging jobs, and advancing in their careers. Although attitudes are often difficult to change, one of the most effective methods for doing so is to provide new information that challenges existing beliefs (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). With this in mind, the primary goal of this research was to test whether individual attitudes about the disabled could be changed by increasing knowledge about people with disabilities in the workplace through a brief educational intervention. In so doing, we hoped to add to the growing academic literature in management on people with disabilities. In the sections that follow, we provide a brief overview of the employment status of people with disabilities, followed by a short discussion of research on attitudes toward people with disabilities in the workplace. We then describe the methods we employed to test our main research question and summarize the results of our study. The article concludes with a discussion of our findings and the limitations of the present study, as well as a discussion of opportunities for future research. Employment Status of People with Disabilities The ADA (1991) defines disability as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a person's ability to perform major life activities such as walking, reading, or performing self-care activities like bathing or eating. The nature of the impairments can range from "invisible" disabilities such as heart disease or schizophrenia, to visible disabilities such as paraplegia or mental retardation. The number of individuals in the US who have a disability is currently estimated to be around 54 million people (NOD, 2002). As life expectancies and advances in medical technology continue to increase, the number of people living with some kind of disabling condition will also rise, increasing both the numbers and significance of this group. In contrast with their prevalence in the general population, people with disabilities are relatively underrepresented in the American workforce. According to recent research, only 28% of people with disabilities who were of working age were employed, compared to 76% of people without disabilities (LaPlante et al., 1996). Similarly, a 1998 NOD study confirmed that only 32% of people with disabilities were working part- or fulltime, compared to 81% of the non-disabled population. Of the people with disabilities who were not working, more than two-thirds said they would rather be working than unemployed (NOD, 2002). The financial ramifications of unemployment and underemployment of people with disabilities is addressed by economist Douglas Kruse, who notes: If only 1 million more people with disabilities worked, there would be as much as a $21.2 billion annual increase in earned income; a $1.2 billion annual decrease in means-tested cash income payments; a $286 million annual decrease in the use of food stamps; a $1. …