title: When is differential treatment discriminatory? Legal, ethical, and professional considerations for psychology trainees with disabilities.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A supervisor may tell graduate trainees with obvious disabilities to disclose the disability to potential clients. Legal and ethical guidelines only partially address whether this requirement is permissible. Here we examine such disclosures from several vantage points.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  Professional judgments guide supervisors in deciding whether to request that a trainee disclose a disability. The law provides little guidance to supervisors in making this decision. Instead, professional ethics and beliefs about disability drive decisions, and these beliefs may be prejudicial.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this article, we examine whether it is good practice for a supervisor in a practicum or internship to require a trainee with an obvious disability to disclose the disability to potential clients before the first meeting so that the client has freedom to request a different therapist. We use this situation to examine the pertinent legal standards; ethical guidelines; and clinical, professional, and social justice issues.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The requirement of disclosure may not be in the best interests of the client and has deleterious repercussions for trainees with disabilities, their peers, and the profession. Unless addressed without prejudice, differential treatment becomes discriminatory and is an obstacle to successful completion of professional education by trainees with obvious disabilities.
authors.affiliation: California School of Professional Psychology, Alliant International University, San Francisco 94133, USA. dtaube@alliant.edu
authors.forename: Daniel O
authors.initials: DO
authors.lastname: Taube
authors.forename: Rhoda
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Olkin
mesh_terms: D006233:Persons with Disabilities / Q000193:education / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D004995:Ethics, Professional; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D007600:Judgment / Q000941:ethics; D011287:Prejudice; D011584:Psychology / Q000193:education / Q000941:ethics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D012650:Self Disclosure; D013336:Students, Health Occupations / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D014342:Truth Disclosure / Q000941:ethics*