Improving the Campus Climate for Students with Disabilities Through the Use of Online Training

Abstract

As one strategy to improve the campus climate for students with disabilities, the Project Opportunity and Access online training program was evaluated for its ability to change the attitudes of faculty and student affairs staff. The Attitudes Towards Disabled Persons Scale was used to measure attitudes towards individuals with disabilities. Because previous contact has been shown to be related toattitudes, eight items from the Contact with Disabled Persons Scale were included in the demographics questionnaire. An ANCOVA revealed that attitudes were significantly better for those individuals who took the training program, although gender appeared to be a mediating variable. Based on these findings, online training may provide a cost-effective means for improving the campus climate for students with disabilities.