Student Scholars Day

The Salience of Disability and the Impact of the Presence of a Person with a Disability (PWD) on Perceived Vulnerability to Negative Health Outcomes

Kirkhof Center 2259

Researchers have suggested that stigma toward people with disability may stem from a feeling of vulnerability among people without disability (Fleischer & Zames, 2001). Others have suggested that stigma stems from a disability being the most defining feature of an individual (Smart, 2009). The goals of this study were to determine whether people increase in perceptions of vulnerability when meeting someone with a disability and whether the disability is the most salient or remembered characteristic. Participants were randomly assigned to have the experimenter use a wheelchair or not use a wheelchair. Participants completed measures of attitude toward disability, perceived vulnerability to a hypothetical health event, and memory recall of the experimenter's characteristics. We tested if participants who saw the experimenter use the wheelchair reported greater vulnerability to a health event and showed lower recall for characteristics of the experimenter.