Abstract
Data from studies of rankings of acceptability and severity of various disabilities were converted to a common metric of percentile equivalent ranks. A total of 1331 data points from 53 studies yielded the following overall percentile equivalent ranks for 24 disabilities: diabetes (most acceptable), ulcer, arthritis, asthma, heart condition, speech problems, crippled, orthopedic disability, physical disability, amputation, emotional disturbance, appearance disability, deafness, learning disability, stroke, cancer, paraplegia, blindness, epilepsy, tuberculosis, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, mental illness, and multiple disabilities (least acceptable). Rankings of the severity of seven disabilities yielded a somewhat different order that correlated 0.55 with the total data. Rankings of a mild disability were, on average, 40 percentile points higher than rankings for the same disability labeled severe or profound.
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Yuker, H.E. Perceptions of severely and multiply disabled persons. Journal of the Multihandicapped Person 1, 5–16 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01110552
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01110552