New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Cite CSDE Research
CSDE's research on public attitudes toward individuals with intellectual disabilities has garnered attention in several prominent national news outlets in recent months.
CSDE's "Youth Attitudes towards Peers with Intellectual Disabilities" study was cited in a Wall Street Journal front-page article on December 31, 2005. "Eli's Choice," an article by Amy Dockser Marcus centers on a Maryland high school student with Down syndrome struggling with the social aspects of inclusion. Ms. Marcus quoted the authors of the study, noting "student attitudes continue to remain the most formidable barrier to inclusion."
The survey was also cited in a New York Times piece on the Farrelly brothers' film, The Ringer, and its depiction of individuals with intellectual disabilities. Titled "What's So Funny About Disability? Well....," the article by Patricia E. Bauer highlighted CSDE's research findings from the survey of 6,000 U.S. middle school students, in which "67 percent of young people surveyed would not spend time with a student with an intellectual disability if given a choice, and almost 50 percent would not sit next to one on a school bus." The article appeared in the Sunday, December 11, 2005 edition of the Times.
In conjunction with Special Olympics, CSDE has created a survey to gauge the response of audiences to The Ringer, which stars Johnny Knoxville as a man who pretends to be intellectually disabled in order to fix the Special Olympics. The survey is available at www.specialolympics.org/theringer.