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With the support of a prestigious early-career award from the American Psychological Foundation, Payton Rule, a first-year graduate student in psychological and brain sciences in Arts & Sciences at WashU, is embarking on a project that will explore the psychological well-being of people with disabilities, a population that sometimes feels left out in an able-centric world.
“Disabled people have been underrepresented in psychological research,” said Rule, who earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy-neuroscience-psychology from WashU in 2022. “I want to find ways for society to better support the well-being of individuals with disabilities.”
In her one-year project, she will recruit people with disabilities to share their daily experiences through surveys. She hopes to document their experiences with discrimination and identify specific ways that society may be able to help protect those with disabilities from the psychological distress caused by unfair treatment.
Read more about the research and learn about Rule’s experience living with a disability on the Ampersand website.