Impact of Mainstreaming and Disability Visibility on Social Representations of Disability and Otherness Held by Junior High School Pupils

The present study sought to gauge the impact of integrating pupils with disabilities in ordinary schools on the social representations of disability and otherness held by their classmates. In particular, we studied the effects of the disability’s visibility—a visible disability (i.e., cerebral palsy) versus a non-visible disability (i.e., severe learning difficulties)—and of “integration experience” (belonging to a class that may or may not include a pupil with a disability). Results showed that pupils shared the same representation of disability, made up mainly of pathological features. Disability also lay at the core of their representation of otherness, which was both rich and diversified. The peripheral components of these representations varied according to the participants’ experiences in the classroom and the visibility of the disability.