Deaf College Students and Computers: The Beneficial Effect of Experience on Attitudes

Abstract

The impact of individual differences on deaf college students' attitudes toward computers was investigated. Three components of computer attitudes were examined: liking, anxiety, confidence. Mean scores for each component were calculated. Subjects (n = 131) were students of both sexes who responded to a questionnaire (alpha .89 for the fall semester and .92 for the spring semester). A t-test did not yield significant differences in the two administrations. The sample positively responded to lack of computer anxiety, and indicated computer liking. Students' confidence level was low. Analyses of variance procedures (.05 level of significance) were run to determine the effect of age, sex, computer experience and major on attitudes. Age, sex, and major were not statistically significant. Computer experience had main affect on all three components of computer attitudes. Interaction by age, sex, experience, and major, was statistically significant for computer anxiety only.

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