ABSTRACT
The social psychology of disability begins with the fact that people with disabilities attract attention in most social contexts. This chapter states that when teaching about disability, teachers must convey to students that living with disability, being rather than becoming, is different from their presumptions, that observers' expectations neither conform to nor confirm the actual experience of affected individuals. It offers ways to define disability, discusses its relationship to prejudice and stereotyping, and recommends accounts and empirical research chosen to make the experience of disability phenomenally real for students. The chapter identifies resources for introducing the culture of disability in the classroom. Significant social progress and intentional activism have reduced discrimination and shifted focus to issues of integration: education, employment, and full participation in the sacred and mundane aspects of daily life. The recent history of the disability rights movement in the United States, which includes the groundbreaking Americans With Disabilities Act, is one of political and social activism.
