Disability Awareness and Etiquette: Transforming Perceptions Through a Series of Experiential Exercises

Individuals with disabilities represent one of the largest and most diverse subgroups within the population. Because of this diversity and the potential for many disabilities to be hidden, however, biases exist regarding what these individuals may look like or how they may act. The majority of these perceptions focus on inabilities as opposed to abilities despite the risk for all individuals to possess or develop a disability. Therefore, there is an increased need to address these issues. As such, this article involves a discussion regarding the integration of several experiential activities to target disability awareness, including information regarding the rationale, assumptions, objectives, and outcomes of these techniques as well as potential adaptations across various groups.