How is the awareness of disability rights in faculty of health sciences’ students?

Abstract

It is important for health professionals to be aware of the social rights of people with disabilities in order to guide the provision of health services. Awareness of disability rights and studies to increase inclusion in our society are limited. This study was designed to assess the awareness of disability rights among undergraduate students in the Faculty of Health Sciences, who will become health professionals after graduation. The study included 347 individuals studying at Hamidiye Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Health Sciences. The students’ awareness of disability rights was evaluated online using the 35-item Disability Rights Awareness Questionnaire prepared by the researchers using Google Forms. The relationships among the collected data were analyzed using Pearson correlation test at SPSS 25.0 program. Of the students who participated in the study, 317 (91.4%) were women and 30 (8.6%) were men. 126 (36.3%) of the participants stated that there was a disabled person in their close environment. 146 (42.1%) of the students participated in training for disabled people and 134 (38.6%) of the students participated in voluntary activities. Of the students who responded to the questionnaire, 208 (59.94%) answered positively to more than half of the quest relations measuring awareness. The level of awareness significantly from first year to the last year (p<0.05). The results of the research show that students have an awareness of disability rights, but this awareness eases in advanced classes. It is predicted that organizing academic education and social activities about disability rights and inclusive approaches among university students is predicted to contribute to increasing general awareness. In future studies it will be important to carry out similar studies in different universities with larger groups of participants in order to reveal the general situation of awareness of disability rights.