Evaluación de actitudes de los profesionales hacia las personas con discapacidad

Percepción del alumnado universitario sobre la discapacidad intelectual: estudio exploratorio descriptivo

Las políticas desarrolladas en las últimas décadas han favorecido la participación de las personas con discapacidad en todos los ámbitos de la vida y la educación no ha sido una excepción. El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo explorar cuál es la percepción del alumnado universitario sobre la discapacidad intelectual. Para lograrlo, se elige un método cuantitativo, siendo el cuestionario diseñado “ad hoc” el instrumento con el que recoger la información. La muestra participante la componen un total de 216 universitarios. Los resultados obtenidos indican que los estudiantes perciben tener poca información sobre la discapacidad intelectual, la cual identifican con tener un nivel intelectual por debajo de la media. Reconocen el derecho de estas personas a formarse en la universidad y se muestran dispuestos a trabajar y formar grupo de iguales con estos compañeros. Estos aspectos permiten concluir con la necesidad de formar e informar al alumnado universitario sobre estos colectivos no solo porque el desconocimiento favorece la exclusión, sino porque son los profesionales del futuro y quienes pueden trabajar por una inclusión plena de estas personas desde sus diferentes ámbitos laborales.

Female and Rural School Students Show More Positive Attitudes toward Disability during Physical Education Lessons

Physical education (PE) lessons offer an excellent opportunity to encourage participation and learning for students with and without disabilities. However, there are still barriers that prevent educative inclusion (EI) from being achieved, with negative attitudes being one of the major issues. This study aimed to explore students without disabilities' attitudes toward their peers with disabilities in the second stage of Primary Education, examining possible differences according to sex (male or female) and school location (urban or rural). The Scale of Attitudes toward Students with Disabilities in Physical Education-Primary Education (SASDPE-PE), a four-item instrument with a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), was administered to 545 Spanish students aged 9 to 12 years old. The results revealed that girls and students from rural schools showed more positive attitudes toward their peers with disabilities during the PE lessons; differences were significant in both cases. Thus, according to our findings, the SASDPE-PE is a practical tool to assess attitudes, even after an attitude-change programme. Furthermore, PE attitude-change programmes should be implemented, especially considering male students and those enrolled in urban schools.

Online Training in Accessibility and Design for All: A Tool to Train Post-COVID Inclusive Graduates

Agenda 2030 expresses, through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and in particular through No. 4, the need to ensure an inclusive and equitable education, which promotes learning opportunities for all. At the university level, all students are urged to acquire the necessary theoretical and practical knowledge to promote sustainable development, so that they become graduates capable of facing the challenges of the future and the real demands of a society marked by heterogeneity, including the needs of people with some kind of disability. In this sense, the present work analyzed the impact of a transversal training program in Design for All on university degree students. For this purpose, a descriptive and comparative ex post facto study was developed in which the impact of an online training program was quantified by establishing comparative pre- and post-training. The results indicate that the approach, through the delivery of a training xplain eon Design for All, contributed to a change in the perceptions of students regarding disability, its role in the university and in the future workplace. Furthermore, it increased the knowledge of institutional action undertaken in terms of awareness and approach to human disability.

Predictors of attitudes about people with intellectual disabilities: empathy for a change towards inclusion

Social change towards inclusion is a very common topic, but progress is slow. Because of its importance in the current educational context, knowing how to speed up this transformation is fundamental. A multiple regression analysis with a transversal quantitative designed survey (n = 245) was conducted. The aim was to identify internal and external factors predicting attitudes towards people with intellectual disability in undergraduate students at the University of Murcia (Spain). According to the expected estimate, the variables 'empathic concern' and 'chosen degree' predict good attitudes towards people with intellectual disability among university students. On the other hand, external variables such as 'previous knowledge about disability' or 'contact with people with disabilities' are not explanatory factors. These findings contribute to the existing knowledge about predictive variables for attitudes towards people with intellectual disabilities in the future Spanish education professionals.

Using the Semantic Differential Technique to Assess Stereotypes toward Individuals with Disabilities: The Relevance of Warmth and Competence

This study analyzes social perceptions towards groups with different types of disability, as well as the relationship between the judgments towards these groups, oneself and other significant individuals. The assessment was carried out using a Semantic Differential scale completed by181 participants. Results supported the Stereotype Content Model, as the different groups with disabilities were perceived in a more uniform way than those who did not share this label, and people with intellectual disability elicited paternalistic feelings. The results also support a two-factor model to explore the content of the stereotypes. Understanding the factors that contribute to the formation of social judgments is key to the implementation of actions that modify stereotypes and prejudices and promote equity.