Influence of a Short-Term Disability Awareness Program on Knowledge and Attitudes of School-Aged Children in Southern Belize: Results of a Community-University Partnership

Abstract

Background: Little is known about the attitudes of children living in Central America toward people with disabilities or the effectiveness of a disability awareness program in influencing their knowledge and attitudes.

Objective: The study objectives were to evaluate the effectiveness of a disability awareness program in influencing Belizean children's knowledge of and attitudes toward people with disabilities in the immediate short term and to describe the development of a university-community partnership that resulted in the development of a culturally appropriate disability awareness program.

Design: This was a single-group pretest-posttest quasi-experimental study with cluster sampling.

Methods: Study participants included 247 children (11-14 years old) from 8 primary schools in Toledo District, Belize. A paper-based disability awareness survey measuring knowledge of and attitudes toward people with disabilities was administered before and after an intervention. The intervention was a 90-minute multimodal disability awareness program. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to model the influence of the intervention on knowledge of and attitudes toward people with disabilities.

Results: Significant improvements in knowledge of and attitudes toward people with disabilities were evident immediately after the intervention.

Limitations: Children were not randomized to a control group. Although this feature was a limitation in terms of study design, the researchers believed that respecting the wishes of the school principals by providing the disability awareness intervention to all students was important.

Conclusions: This study provided an example of how a university-community partnership can positively influence community outcomes. Further research is needed to assess long-term changes in Belizean children's knowledge of, attitudes toward, and behaviors toward people with disabilities, as well as the social inclusion and participation of children with disabilities.