ABSTRACT
This chapter presents attitudes of health and welfare professionals towards disabled people and, in particular, their attitudes towards the recruitment of disabled people as their colleagues. It focuses on the experiences of disabled health and welfare professionals. This will serve as a back-drop to compare, contrast and analyse the experiences of the visually impaired physiotherapists. Disabled people are widely discriminated against in most types of employment which makes it likely that they will find entry to employment of professional status, such as the health and welfare professions, particularly difficult. There has been very little research specifically addressing the perceptions and experiences of disabled health and welfare professionals. All the disabled professionals could see advantages relating to being disabled in the work context. The most common response was that they felt better able to empathise with their patients and clients and understand the social and psychological implications of disability. Some people experienced negative attitudes and behaviour from their teachers.
