Women's Perceptions of the Capabilities of Athletes with Disabilities

People with disabilities face public perceptions of lesser capabilities (Bourke & Waite 2013) or that they’re inspiring/superhuman for accomplishing simple goals (Berger, 2008). These are forms of prejudice, but little research focuses on whether this translates to discrimination. Furthermore, there is more research that identifies discrimination is from a male perspective (Morin, et al., 2013). We’re exploring non-disabled women’s perceptions of the athletic abilities of women with disabilities. This study is an experimental design where we will measure women’s assumed abilities of woman with or without a disability when participating in sport. These findings will be on-going at the time of this conference.