VERBAL INTERACTIONS WITH INDIVIDUALS PRESENTING WITH AND WITHOUT PHYSICAL-DISABILITY

Four experimenters (two male and two female) requested directions to t he bookstore from male and female college students on a university cam pus. Each experimenter portrayed a student with a disability using a w heelchair and a student without a disability. Conversations were surre ptitiously recorded, and verbal interaction patterns were analyzed. Si gnificant differences were observed on all dependent variables, word c ounts, frequency of interrogatives, and use of locator words. These fi ndings suggest that individuals with a disability are addressed differ ently than individuals without disabilities, and provide limited behav ioral replication of research documenting differential responses of co llege students to persons with and without disabilities.