By APA?s Task Force on Diversity Issues at the Precollege and Undergraduate Levels of Education in Psychology

Is there anything positive about being disabled? Do disabled people constitute a separate cultural group? Why do able-bodied individuals avoid eye contact with wheelchair users? Can people with disabilities have sexual relationships?

Historically, questions such as these have not been discussed much in psychology classrooms. But, as disability has become one of the hot topics of the decade, psychology instructors have begun to integrate issues related to disabled people into the curriculum.

Viewing people with disabilities as a specific cultural group within a diverse society is a new development. When we think about culture, we think of groups of people who share values, rituals, customs, traditions, language, folklore and art and who have developed a sense of unity and identity because of a common history or set of experiences. Traditionally, however, disabled people have been categorized solely in terms of physical, sensory or mental differences, with little attention paid toward their shared sociocultural history. Yet groups within the disabled community often share a common language (such as American Sign Language, Braille, terms used to talk about disability or themselves), customs and traditions (such as celebrations of disability consciousness and pride), art (including, poetry, paintings and plays by disabled artists and performers), folklore (such as stories about real or fictional disabled people, from Helen Keller to the mobility-impaired character in ?My Left Foot?). They also share political goals arising from a history of oppression (such as the need to lobby for legislation to protect disabled people?s civil rights).

The struggle to get societal institutions to recognize the rights, needs and culture of disabled people has been going on throughout history but peaked with the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. As a result of this law, which is a federal statute designed to prevent discrimination and to promote equal opportunities for individuals with physical, sensory or mental disabilities, most university administrations and academic departments have begun to recognize that people with disabilities face difficulties similar to those of other minority populations. Teachers who wish to incorporate issues of disability into their courses, however, are faced with a serious barrier: the thin coverage in the traditional psychological literature of disabled people?s psychosocial needs, health concerns, cultural identities and community affiliations. Because past definitions of disability have been so narrow, most studies have focused exclusively upon the consequences of dealing with a health-related condition or the ways in which able-bodied people have developed negative attitudes about disability. Nonetheless, educators can make disability more salient and can stimulate thinking about how having a disability affects a person?s identity, motivation and development.

Integration of disability into curriculum
The following are examples of topics and exercises that educators can draw upon for teaching purposes.

1) Disability and Health Psychology: During lectures on health psychology and the interplay between psychological health and medical conditions, instructors can introduce information on the nature of different types of disabilities and the ways in which disability-specific factors such as age of onset, duration of the disability and how the disability was acquired affect psychological adjustment. An appropriate classroom activity may be to invite people with varying types of disabilities to participate in a panel discussion on their experiences.

2) Disability and Research Design: Researchers have identified several types of difficulties that arise when studying disability. Instructors can cite such difficulties when teaching about research design, methodology and sampling problems. Challenges in conducting research with disabled people include developing a design that enables disabled people to participate. For example, it would be impossible for people with certain arm and hand impairments to complete pen and paper surveys. Similarly, deaf individuals would have difficulty participating in studies where verbal instructions and/or responses were required. Furthermore, the presence of assistants during a study may have some influence on disabled respondents? ability to be candid in their responses. By generating discussion about such problems, teachers can not only raise students? awareness of how physical limitations and social barriers affect persons with disabilities, but can also deepen understanding of the many factors to be resolved when designing a good study.

2) Disability Lifestyle: When discussing group differences, instructors can teach about the psychological consequences of health complications, psychosocial influences, and environmental aspects of disability in order to foster an understanding of this population?s experience. Possible topics include concerns about health problems, communication barriers with able-bodied people based upon physical limitations and/or social fears, frustration because of transportation difficulties, architectural barriers and the high expense of maintaining wheelchairs, modified automobiles, hearing aids, white canes and Seeing Eye dogs, and personal attendant care. Teachers can ask students who are unfamiliar with disability-related issues to spend an extended period with a person with a disability and then write a paper on this experience.

3) Disability as a Social Experience: Teachers can use the disabled community as an example when discussing such topics such as social stigma, discrimination, prejudice and cultural pride. Disability can be integrated into lecture material on attitudes and attitude formation by defining it as a minority experience similar to that of various ethnic groups. Also, when teaching about group formation and identification, a discussion of the history of the disability rights movement would be appropriate. Teachers can ask students to write a theoretical paper analyzing the disability experience from a minority perspective. Or instructors can ask psychology students to conduct in-depth interviews with disability activists and then write a paper on this experience.

Where to go from here
Given that a more comprehensive understanding of the lives of persons with disabilities is emerging, it is essential that academicians begin to recognize this large population. APA?s Task Force on Diversity Issues at the Precollege and Undergraduate Levels of Education in Psychology has begun to address the importance of this transition and the practical issues needed to implement this change. Some disability-relevant literature that can be useful additions to general psychology curriculum include the following:

? Bruyere, S.M., and O?Keeffe, J., ?Implications of the Americans with Disabilities Act for Psychology? (New York: Springer Publishing Company, 1994).

? Hey, S.C., and Zola, I.K. (Eds.). 1995 course syllabi, experiential learning activities and other instructional materials for teaching about disability. Available for $15 through the Society for Disability Studies. Contact Elaine Makas, Lewiston-Auburn College, 51 Westminster St., Lewiston, ME 04240.

? Krotoski, D.M., Nosek, M.A., and Turk, M.A. (Eds.). ?Women With Physical Disabilities: Achieving and Maintaining Health and Well-Being (Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., 1994).

? Wright, B.A. ?Physical Disability: A Psychosocial Approach? (New York: Harper and Rowe Publishers, 1993).

This article is the third in a series by the Board of Educational Affair?s Task Force on Diversity Issues at the Precollege and Undergraduate Levels of Education in Psychology. The group is working to promote the teaching of psychology as a more inclusive discipline. The task force seeks to find constructive ways of supporting teachers? efforts to convey research findings on diverse groups and address such issues as gender, ethnicity, culture, sexual orientation and disability. The task force members are A. Toy Caldwell-Colbert, PhD, Ruth E. Fassinger, PhD, Joseph J. Horvat, Jr., PhD, Joe Lamas, Linda Mona, John N. Mortisugu, PhD, and Carole E. Wade, PhD.