Original Research Article
Year: 2023 | Month: June | Volume: 13 | Issue: 6 | Pages: 130-135
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijhsr.20230623
Perceived Discriminating Behaviour among Persons with Disability (Divyangjan) Towards Community
V. N. Yadav1, Deepak Malik1
1Department of Psychology, Central University of Haryana, Mahendergarh, Haryana, India
Corresponding Author: Deepak Malik
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Millions of people across the world suffer from some type of disability. Disabled individuals face a wide range of psychological, social, cultural, physical, economic, vocational, and other problems, as well as discrimination and mistreatment.
Objective: The aim of the study was to explore how persons with disability (PwD) perceive the community’s discriminating behavior towards them.
Method: A purposive sampling approach was used, and the heads of various institutions were contacted for selecting the participants, mainly Physically Handicapped, Hearing Impaired, and Visually Impaired were included. A semi-structured personal information sheet and Perceived Discrimination Scale were administered.
Data analysis: The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis to determine the frequency of perceived discrimination with different types of disability, and One-way ANOVA was used to quantify the differences between types of different disabilities.
Results: A total 670 disabled people (male = 450; female = 220) from Bhiwani district of Haryana were enrolled in the present study. The sample ranged in age from 18 to 55 years (mean ± SD; 36.23 ± 6.41). The analysis of variance revealed a significant main effect of Type of Disability (F2,667= 10.32, p<.01), indicating that visually impaired respondents had higher Perceived Discrimination scores (M=81.04), followed by hearing impaired (M=80.48), and physically handicapped (M=73.32).
Conclusion: The present study indicates that respondents encounter discrimination on an individual and group level in their daily lives. The present findings point to the need for additional action research targeted at changing negative public attitudes and disabled people's self-perception.
Key words: Disability, perceived discrimination, psychological impact, individual differences