Faculty knowledge of disability law and its relationship to attitude, education and experience

The current study aimed to examine the relationship between faculty member's attitudes, education and experience with their knowledge of disability law. It also examined the impact of participants relationships with individuals with disabilities, or their own disability, on legal knowledge. Lastly, the study explored whether increased knowledge of the faculty resulted in fewer cases filed with the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, or the United States Department of Justice.;Faculty from three institutions of higher education (N = 134) were used in this investigation of attitudes and knowledge of those who teach students with disabilities. Participants completed an anonymous survey with demographic questions and standardized measures. Faculty attitudes were measured using the Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons Scale (ATDP-O; Yuker, & Block, 1960), and knowledge of disability law was measured using the Disability Law Knowledge Survey Questionnaire (DLSKQ; Thompson & Bethea, 1996). Participants' scores on the attitude scale, along with gender, years teaching, rank, number of students with disabilities taught, whether or not they considered themselves to have a disability, whether or not they consider themselves to have or have had a meaningful relationship with someone with a disability, type of disability education received and perceived level of current disability law knowledge were investigated as predictors of disability law knowledge.;Results indicate that the only significant predictor of knowledge of disability law is past didactic exposure. Upon examining the multiple regression education accounted for 14% of the variance in knowledge scores. After exploring the result of faculty knowledge on the number of grievances filed both institutionally and with government agencies, it appears that knowledge of the faculty did not impact complaints with the Office for Civil Rights or The United States Department of Justice. Although these results indicate that faculty knowledge of disability law is not related to grievances filed, future research should explore how knowledge scores are related to other important variables such as satisfaction of students with disabilities or scores on disability compliance audits. The information that has been gained in this study may assist universities in providing alternative forums to support faculty.