Disabled counselors: perception of their effectiveness in a therapeutic relationship.
It has not been delineated how a disabled person is viewed when interacting with another person. The present study investigated subject perception of a counselor in a wheelchair who was seen in a video-taped counseling interview. Subject degree of body satisfaction was measured to assess the importance of this variable in the perception. Evaluation of the counselor was by the Barett-Lennard Relationship Inventory that measures four dimensions of a relationship: emphatic understanding, positive regard, unconditional regard and congruence. Results suggest that a counselor in a wheelchair is perceived more favorably than an able-bodied counselor along three of these dimensions and female subjects perceive him more favorably than male subjects do. Degree of body satisfaction does not seem to be a factor in this perception.
D001294:Attitude to Health; D003376:Counseling; D006233:Persons with Disabilities; D004526:Efficiency; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D012928:Social Desirability; D012938:Social Perception; D014743:Videotape Recording; D000078329:Workforce