University students facing inclusion of their collegues with disabilities: indicators based on the theory of planned behavior for economics and business studies in the university of A Coruña (Spain)

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Inclusive education for disabled people has been broadly accepted like the best way to achieve the best results, both in relation to academic success and in boosting social integration and social and economic welfare. Although great progress have been made in primary and secondary education, access to higher education has been almost impossible too often for many people in these groups, for whom distance university has been their only option until recently. In our work, we have intended to analyze the inclusion of disabled people in a conventional university environment, with face to face teaching, focusing on the attitudes of all students, as a group, and the great importance of their behavior to achieve a successful inclusion. We propose a work based on an empirical investigation undertaken in the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of A Coruña (Spain). A total of 164 students were enquired on individual attitudes, social norms and perceived control as key questions for promoting intention to support inclusion of disabled students, as the Theory of Planned Behavior postulates (TPB). The achieved results are encouraging, nevertheless they show the need of public institutions as boosters of educational inclusive policies at the Universities. Coexistence is confirmed as a key variable to promote positive attitudes towards disability.