Thoughts and feelings about casual social interaction between nondisabled college students and peers with various physical disabilities were explored in a sample of 127 nondisabled, 17 visually impaired, 10 hearing impaired, and 19 wheelchair-user college students. The results indicate that nondisabled students experienced more negative affect and thinking about interacting with students who have disabilities than with able-bodied peers; the nature of the disability made little difference. Thoughts and feelings of students with and without disabilities concerning interacting with able-bodied peers were generally similar. These findings suggest that difficulties between college students with and without disabilities during casual social interactions are due, primarily, to the nature of nondisabled individuals' cognitions and affect. Recommendations for future research and for the design of attitude change programming to facilitate interaction are made. Many nondisabled people are uncomfortable with those who have disabilities (Fichten, Tagalakis, & Amsel, 1989; Marinelli & Kelz, 1973) and casual social interaction between individuals with and without disabilities, when they do not know each other well, is often problematic (Snyder, Kleck, Strenta, & Mentzer, 1979; Stovall & Sedlacek, 1983). In the college context, data indicate that nondisabled students have negative attitudes toward peers with disabilities which
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.