An Experimental Study of Disability Spread: Talking to an Adult in a Wheelchair Like a Child1

An experiment tested whether a physically disabled individual will be spoken to like a child. College students gave directions over an intercom to one person and then to a second person, after seeing photos of each. The second person was a 12-year-old child, a non-disabled adult, or the adult in a wheelchair. To control for individual differences, speech to the second person was assessed relative to speech to the first standard person. More words were used and there was greater amplitude at high frequencies when speaking to the child than to the non-disabled adult. Also, as expected from disability spread, more words were used and there was greater amplitude at high frequencies when speaking to the adult in a wheelchair than to the non-disabled adult.