Abstract

The present study was designed co see the perceptions of disabled persons by students at different school stages. Study 1 investigated attitudes toward disabled persons held by primary school(N=96), middle school(N=101), high school(N=63), and college students(N=119). Results indicated chat generally students at high school stages were more negative to the disabled. The more contact with and education about disabled persons students experienced, the more positive they were to the disabled. In study 2 students from three colleges(N=119, 119, 109, each), which were different in school systems for disabled persons, were compared in their perception of disabled persons. Results indicated chat the most positive were those students from the college with departments and courses relevant to the disabled. Whereas the results about the effects of contact and education were quite similar to those from Study 1, the combined effects of those two variables were remarkable, so that students with experiences more than five times in the number of contact with and education of disable persons were the most positive to the disabled. Those findings were discussed in terms of social implications.