ABSTRACT

One of the main objectives this year, the International Year of Disabled Persons, is to help integrate people with a disability (PwD) into society. To this end, we are faced with two barriers. One is a physical barrier, due to the physical limitations of PwD. The second is a psychological barrier, namely, the hindrances caused by people's attitudes towards PwD, as well as the attitudes of PwD themselves. At first sight, the physical barrier cannot be helped, whereas the psychological barrier could be reduced easily. Quite the contrary. Because of the vast improvements in modern living conditions and the advances in modern technology such as micro-electronics, the physical limitations have actually been diminishing. On the other hand, people's attitudes on the PwD seem to have remained at the traditional level. It is the purposes of this article to point out how some of these attitudes affect the integration process and to make suggestions as to how they might be overcome.

1. Department of Computer Science, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong. Email:

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