Characters’ frequency of being chosen last
Figure 3 presents the frequencies with which characters were chosen last as a function of the four experimental manipulations: “No Label”, the characters were serving as a control and therefore no disability label was included in the characters’ description (26.6 ± 2.2%, 95% confidence interval); “Has a Disability”, the characters were described as having a disability (33.4 ± 4.0%); “Has a Certain Disability”, the characters were described as having a specific disability (e.g., “is blind,” 34.7 ± 4.0%); and “Has Special Needs”, the characters were described as having special needs (40.4 ± 4.2%).
As Fig. 3 illustrates, a one-dimensional chi-square goodness-of-fit test for mutually exclusive categories indicated that the frequencies with which characters were chosen last in the four experimental conditions (No Label, Has a Disability, Has a Certain Disability, Has Special Needs) differed significantly from chance (χ
2(3) = 15.16, p = 0.002).
As predicted, characters were significantly more likely to be chosen last when they were described as having special needs than when they were described as having a disability (z = 2.362, p = 0.009, one-tailed). Similarly, and as predicted, characters were significantly more likely to be chosen last when they were described as having special needs than when they were described as having a certain disability (z = 1.908, p = 0.028, one-tailed).
Characters were also significantly more likely to be chosen last when they were described as having special needs than when no (disability) label was included (z = 6.008, p < 0.001, one-tailed). In contrast, characters were equally likely to be chosen last when they were described as having a disability as when they were described as having a certain disability (z = −0.455, p = 0.653, two-tailed).
Thus, characters described as having special needs were most frequently chosen last, indicating that special needs is an ineffective euphemism. Characters described as having special needs were chosen last even more frequently than characters described as having a disability or a certain disability, suggesting that the euphemism special needs conveys more negativity than the non-euphemized term disability or the names of specific disabilities (e.g., blind). If special needs was an effective euphemism, then we would have observed that characters described as having special needs were chosen last less often than characters described as having a disability or a certain disability. But, as predicted, we observed just the opposite.
The pattern of results illustrated in Fig. 3 was obtained regardless of whether the to-be-selected character was a child, college student, or middle-age adult (χ
2(6) = 6.22, p = 0.399). Thus, special needs is an ineffective euphemism regardless of the age of the person to whom it is applied.
However, as illustrated in Fig. 4, one aspect of the pattern of results was affected by whether the participants had a personal connection to disability. Participants with a personal connection to disability (37% of the sample) were less likely than participants without a personal connection to disability (61% of the sample) to choose characters last when the characters were described as having special needs (z = −2.284, p = 0.023, two-tailed). For the other three conditions, participants with a personal connection to disability resembled participants without a personal connection to disability (z = −0.014, p = 0.992, two-tailed, for “Has a Certain Disability”; z = −0.403, p = 0.689, two-tailed, for “Has a Disability”; and z = −0.616, p = 0.535, two-tailed, for “No Label”).
As Fig. 4 illustrates, participants with a personal connection to disability were equally likely to choose characters last when the characters were described as having special needs as when the characters were described as having a disability (z = 0.433, p = 0.667, two-tailed) or a certain disability (z = −0.108, p = 0.912, two-tailed). Thus, even for participants with a personal connection to disability, the euphemism special needs conveys as much negativity as the non-euphemized term disability or the names of specific disabilities (e.g., blind), again indicating that special needs is an ineffective euphemism.
Participants’ associations to the terms disability and special needs
Participants’ associations to the prompts, “When I hear the term special needs, the first few thoughts that come to my mind are ____” and “When I hear the term has a disability or has disabilities, the first few thoughts that come to my mind are ____,” were coded by two of the co-authors, naïve to the participants’ demographics. The coders agreed on 96.83% of the codes and the disagreements were resolved by consensus.
Participants had been given five slots into which to write their associations to each of the two prompts (the term special needs and the term has a disability or has disabilities, which hereafter will be referred to as disability). On average, participants provided the same number of associations to special needs (M = 4.918; SD = 0.522) as to disability (M = 4.934; SD = 0.442, t(526) = 1.571, p = 0.117).
Participants’ associations were classified into ten mutually exclusive coding categories. Three of the ten coding categories captured affective associations: positive (e.g., “strong,” “capable,” or “acceptance”), negative (e.g., “annoying,” “helpless,” or “needy”), and neutral (e.g., “different,” “lifelong,” or “born that way”). Approximately 40% of participants’ associations were coded as belonging to one these three affective categories.
Four of the ten coding categories captured four types of disability: physical disabilities (e.g., “paraplegic,” “wheelchair user,” or “amputee”); developmental disabilities (“intellectual disability,” “autism,” or “Down syndrome”); sensory disabilities (e.g., “blind,” “deaf,” or “can’t talk”), and psychiatric disabilities (e.g., “mental illness,” “bipolar,” or “depression”). Approximately 30% of the participants’ associations were coded as belonging to one of these four types of disabilities.
The remaining three of the ten coding categories were empathy (e.g., “I want to help”), accommodations (“wheelchair,” “special education”), and requests for more information (e.g., “what’s wrong?”). Approximately 25% of the participants’ associations were coded as belonging to one of these three categories. The remaining associations, which composed less than 5% of the associations, were considered un-categorizable.
Figure 5 presents the relative proportion of participants’ associations that expressed affective sentiments (positive, neutral, and negative) as a function of whether the participants were providing associations to the euphemism special needs or the term disability. As Fig. 5 illustrates, participants’ affective associations to special needs differed significantly from their affective associations to disability (χ
2(2) = 17.1, p < 0.001).
Participants produced significantly more negative associations to the euphemism special needs than to the term disability (χ
2(1) = 16.6, p < 0.001). Participants also produced significantly fewer positive associations and significantly fewer neutral associations to special needs than to disability (χ
2(1) = 6.12, p = 0.013 and χ
2(1) = 4.70, p = 0.030, respectively).
Participants produced significantly more negative and fewer positive associations to the euphemism special needs than to the term disability, regardless of whether they had a personal association to disability. Across the board, participants with a personal connection to disability provided fewer negative associations and more positive associations than did participants without a personal connection to disability (χ
2(2) = 55.8, p < 0.001). Nonetheless, both participants with and without a personal connection to disability produced more negative associations to special needs (41 and 54% of the participants’ affective associations, respectively) than to disability (33 and 45%, respectively). Thus, participants’ personal connection to disability did not diminish their negativity to the euphemism special needs (χ
2(1) = 0.012, p = 0.912).
Similarly, both participants with and without a personal connection to disability produced fewer positive associations to special needs (25 and 14% of the participants’ affective associations, respectively) than to disability (32 and 17%, respectively). Thus, participants’ personal connection to disability did not increase their positivity to the euphemism special needs (χ
2(1) = 0.059, p = 0.808).
Figure 6 presents the relative proportion of participants’ associations that conveyed a type of disability (developmental disabilities, physical disabilities, sensory disabilities, and psychiatric disabilities) as a function of whether the participants were providing associations to the euphemism special needs or the term disability. As Fig. 6 illustrates, participants associated significantly different disabilities with special needs than with disability (χ
2(3) = 233, p < 0.001).
Participants were significantly more likely to associate developmental disabilities with the euphemism special needs than with the term disability (χ
2(1) = 202, p < 0.001). Participants were significantly less likely to associate physical disabilities and sensory disabilities with special needs than with disability (χ
2(1) = 150, p < 0.001 and χ
2(1) = 29.6, p < 0.001, respectively). Participants were equally likely to associate psychiatric disabilities with special needs as with disability (χ
2(1) = 0.079, p = 0.779).
Lastly, participants were less likely to associate “Requests for more information” with the special needs (11%) than disability (18%; χ
2(1) = 12.1, p < 0.001). Participants were equally likely to associate “Empathy” with special needs (25%) and disability (28%; χ
2(1) = 1.11, p = 0.291). Participants were more likely to associate “Accommodations” with special needs (64%) than disability (55%; χ
2(1) = 11.8, p = 0.001). Many of the participants’ accommodations-related associations to special needs were related to special education or to “special” organizations and activities (e.g., Special Olympics).