Abstract
Awareness of disability is fundamental to creating equity for people with disabilities in any society. Because Saudi university graduates constitute an important part of society, this study aims to explore the level of awareness of disability amongst Saudi university graduates as well as the level of experience on disability as provided by their universities. A cross-sectional study was performed using a questionnaire developed by the researchers specifically for the purposes of this study. The questionnaire consisted of 4 sections, containing 39-items. Social media were used to recruit the participants and solicit responses: Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp groups. Upon analysis of the results, it was observed among all respondents (n = 449, male = 246, female = 203) that there was a lack of disability awareness. As such, there is a need to increase this awareness among university students in Saudi Arabia. There is also a fundamental need to provide some programs and/or courses about disability in Saudi universities. Moreover, there were statistically significant differences between gender, university type and university major. The study was limited to the Saudi context, and perhaps further research can deal with the major reasons for the awareness shortcomings, and may also cover other countries, singularly or comparatively, which would in turn yield better and more effective results. The study helps address the equality of people with disabilities where the result of the study can be used as the basis for further research on the topic.
Disability; Disability awareness; People with disabilities; Saudi universities; University graduates.