Non-handicapped Students’ Point of View towards Physical Disabled Students in Higher Education: Case of Marmara University

• Main Authors: Sibel CENGİZHAN, Buket DOĞAN, Elif URAL, Aynur AKAR, Firdevs Melis CİN
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bülent Ecevit University 2019-12-01
• Series: Yükseköğretim ve Bilim Dergisi
• Subjects: higher education; physical disability; disability awareness; disability perspective
• Online Access: http://higheredu-sci.beun.edu.tr/pdf.php3?id=1913
• ISSN: 2146-5959; 2146-5967

The purpose of the research is to examine non-handicapped students’ points of view towards physically disabled students in higher education. For this purpose, the study was conducted with a survey model. The population of the research consists of non-handicapped students who study at Marmara University in the 2015-16 academic year, while the sample consists of 661 non-handicapped students with the random sampling method. 423 of these students were female, and 238 were male. The answers given to the questionnaire consists of seven multiple-choice questions and 25 statements. In the answers given to the questionnaire, 4-point Likert was used as “strongly disagree, disagree, agree and strongly agree”. In the analysis of the data, the percentage and frequency values for each statement in the questionnaire were given. The results show that abled students do not have enough awareness about being disabled, did not want to receive guidance services about the disability, whereas they responded mostly to positive expressions in their responses to questions about disability perspectives. In order to increase disability awareness in higher education, disabled student units should be more functional in each of the faculties and putting compulsory courses about disability in each faculty can have a positive effect. In addition, especially in the Community Service Practices courses, students may attend one or two symposiums, clubs, associations, workshops, projects, etc. about the problems of disabled students. It is thought that participation in these activities and providing volunteer activities in nongovernmental organizations will provide awareness about disability.