An investigation of the sensitivity and attitudes of students studying at the faculty of sports sciences and academicians working at the faculty of sports sciences towards individuals with disabilities

In this study, which aims to examine the sensitivity and attitudes of students studying at the Faculty of Sports Sciences and academicians working at the Faculty of Sports Sciences towards disabled individuals, 114 people studying at the Faculty of Sports Sciences and academicians working at the Faculty of Sports Sciences participated. In addition to the socio-demographic data form, the Attitudes Towards Disabled People scale developed by Dökmen (2000) was applied to measure the attitudes of the participants in the study towards disabled people. The Attitude Towards Disabled People scale is a 5-step Likert-type attitude scale with 30 items, scored as 1 for "strongly agree", 2 for "agree", 3 for "undecided", 4 for "disagree", and 5 for "strongly disagree". The Attitudes Towards Disabled Scale as three sub-dimensions: sensitivity, (13 items), resource distribution, (4 items) and social values (13 items). Items 2, 11,12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19, 22, 25 are reverse coded items. Sensitivity sub-dimension: 1, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19, 25, 26, 29. Resource Allocation sub- dimension: 30, 22, 11, 10. Social Values sub-dimension: 2, 3, 4, 7, 13, 16, 18, 20, 21, 23, 24, 27, 28. The highest score that can be obtained from the scale is 150 and the lowest score is 30. Reliability coefficients of the Attitude Towards Disabled Scale; Cronbach's alpha was found to be .91 and the split-half reliability coefficient was .83. In the internal reliability tests conducted as used in our study, Cronbach's alpha values were found to be .89 for the Sensitivity sub-dimension, .92 for the Social Values sub-dimension, .85 for the Resource Allocation sub- dimension and .90 for the total scale. In the study, it was determined that the scores of women among students studying at the Faculty of Sports Sciences and academicians working at the Faculty of Sports Sciences were significantly higher than men, and at the same time, according to their marital status, the scores of married students were significantly higher than those who were single. According to the status of taking courses for disabled people and participating in research/seminars, it was determined that the scores of those who took courses, participated in research or seminars were significantly higher than those who did not participate. It has been determined that living with a disabled individual and caring for a disabled individual at some point in their life do not differ in sensitivity and attitude towards disabled individuals. Considering the educational status, it was determined that there was no difference between academicians and students. As a result, in this study, sensitivity and attitudes towards disabled individuals were higher in women than in men, in married people compared to single people, and in those who received training or participated in research/seminars about disabled people. It has been determined that it can have positive results. Key words: Disabled People, Attitude, Sports Sciences