Assessing the influence of Beatrice Wright, a groundbreaking rehabilitation psychologist, is the purpose of this article. She is best known for her books (1960, 1983) in which she elaborated numerous original concepts that describe, explain, and aim to improve outsiders’ perception and insiders’ experience of life with a disability. A panel of 15 respected academics familiar with her publications answered an e-mailed questionnaire to delineate and critique the impact of Wright’s work on rehabilitation education, research, and practice. These findings were anonymously shared with Dr. Wright, and her thoughtful responses are reported as supplementary data. Numerous specific recommendations for research and practice are provided in the responses by Wright and the panel of experts. The latter’s judgments substantiate that Wright enjoys an outstanding reputation as an author of seminal ideas that have been more successfully applied as professional guidelines for providing meaningful and sensitive services than used as variables for research and instrument development.
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