Attitudes toward Disabled Persons Scale (ATDP)

 The ATDP is a self-report measure of an individual's attitudes towards people with

disabilities and is the most widely used measure of general attitudes towards persons with

disabilities (Antonak & Livneh, 1988). It was developed as a unidimensional scale of

attitudes. The scale is designed primarily to measure attitudes towards persons with

disabilities (Antonak & Livneh, 1988).The scale was originally published in 1960 as a

20-item scale (Yuker, Block, & Campbell, 1960). The original scale, Form-O was altered

and published in 1962 (Yuker, Block, Younng, 1966) as a 30-item scale with two Forms,

A and B. Each scale takes approximately 10 minutes to administer although the scale is

untimed.

 One criticism of the ATDP was the language used. Specifically, the wording of the

scale had not been updated since the emergence of person first language. However, Pruett

modified the ATDP Form-A to person first language in 2004 (SEE Appendix C).

 Responses. The ATDP utilizes a six-point Likert-scale for individuals to indicate

their agreement or disagreement with each item. The scale ranges from -3 ("I disagree

very much"), -2 ("I disagree pretty much"), -1 ("I disagree a little"), +1 (I agree a little),

+2 ("I agree pretty much"), to +3 ("I agree very much"). Individuals are asked to circle

the response at the right of each statement based on how they feel in each case.

Scoring. Form-A of the ATDP yields a summated scale score. The scoring for twelve

items on Form-A must be reversed (Items 5, 9, 12, 14, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24, 25, and 29).

Once the scoring for these items is reversed, the scores for all 30 items are summed, and

the sign of the sum is reversed. The raw score is scaled by adding a constant (90) to the

sum thereby ensuring the total score isn't a negative value. The range of possible scores

is 0 to 180. A lower number reflects more negative attitudes towards people with