Breaking Barriers: Fostering Equality and Combating Prejudice through Disability Awareness Courses in Taiwanese Higher Education Institutions

Although the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) advocates for the social model of disability and human rights, the medical model continues to dominate in Taiwan, particularly in disability awareness-raising courses offered at higher education institutions. Consequently, there is a necessity to refine the existing curriculum design to comply with UNCRPD requirements and the social model of disability. This study aimed to assess the efficacy of traditional life education courses and UNCRPD-compliant disability awareness-raising professional collaboration courses in fostering a sense of equality and diminishing prejudice towards individuals with disabilities within higher education settings in Taiwan.

The research was carried out at National Taipei University (NTPU) and Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology (STUST), involving 137 participants in the pre-test (baseline), 120 participants in the first post-test (following traditional life education courses), and 20 participants in the second post-test (after professional collaboration). The Attitude Toward Disabled Persons (ATDP) scale was employed to evaluate participants' attitudes. Four demographic variables were considered: school, gender, age, and relationships with individuals with disabilities (family members or friends). The gender and family members with disability composition displayed no significant difference between NTPU and STUST. However, NTPU participants were notably older and had more friends with disabilities than STUST participants, attributable to school structure and professional field differences.

The findings revealed that both life education courses and professional collaboration courses positively influenced participants' attitudes toward individuals with disabilities, with professional collaboration courses demonstrating a more significant impact. Participants' average ATDP scores increased marginally after traditional life education (M=68.28, SD=9.94) compared to the baseline (M=67.25, SD=11.15), but the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.4394). Conversely, participants' average ATDP scores (M=80.40, SD=11.80) after the professional collaboration was significantly higher than the baseline and the first post-test (p<0.0001).

In the regression model, it was discovered that females had an average ATDP score 4.76 points higher than males (p<0.01), an additional year of age correlated with a 0.9 point increase in ATDP scores (p<0.01), attending professional collaboration resulted in a 10.5 point increase in ATDP scores compared to the baseline (p<0.001), and having friends with disabilities led to a 2.62 point increase in ATDP scores compared to those without friends with disabilities.

The pilot study demonstrates that professional collaboration and befriending individuals with disabilities are effective strategies for transforming attitudes toward individuals with disabilities. These findings carry significant practical implications for curriculum design and policy-making. While acknowledging limitations, such as non-random participant selection and high implementation costs, this research provides a strong foundation for future studies to address these limitations and further explore the effectiveness of CRPD-compliant disability awareness-raising courses.