Susan Zimmerman is a disability resource specialist and a member of The Aurora Foundation, a Tucson advocacy and leadership-development group that works with girls and women who have disabilities.

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'America's People, America's Talent . . . America's Strength" is the theme of October's National Disability Employment Awareness Month, which began in 1945 as "National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week."

The passage of laws over the decades has helped increase recognition of the value of persons with disabilities to the fabric of our nation. These laws have reduced many barriers that once excluded people with disabilities from the mainstream and shaped a different landscape of opportunities for them.

Yet laws do not get at the most formidable barriers to their unfettered participation. The barriers are attitudes, underlying stereotypes and misguided beliefs.

One belief is that "disabilities are (only) those we can see," chiefly physical or sensory disabilities.

The fact is that most disabilities are hidden: psychological (personality disorders, anxiety disorders, depression); cognitive (speech and language, learning disabilities); developmental (mental retardation, autism); sensory (low vision, hard of hearing); and other health impairments (cancer, HIV/AIDS, asthma and more).

People with hidden disabilities have unique challenges that often present a profound dilemma: whether to disclose their disability. Relationships develop through personal disclosure. In workplace or education settings, some disabled people choose to disclose on an "as needed" basis to employers or educators from whom they seek accommodations.

The risks of disclosing disability status are high. Doing so may stigmatize and result in social isolation, reduced self-esteem and marginalized self-concept. People who do not see the disability may deny that it exists. Subse-quent interactions could be tainted by this knowledge.

These sources of dilemma — negative, stigmatizing, and distrusting attitudes — can be more "disabling" than any disability.

We may believe that we treat all people with disabilities as equals, but studies show that we form stereotypes or negative attitudes through unconscious processes, often at an early age. Stereotypes and negative attitudes are "automatic pilots" that trigger unexamined, "automatic" thinking and behavior.

The "normal looking" person sits next to you and speaks out loud with himself as if in discussion with someone else. What will you think about him?

Your colleague asks you to read the restaurant menu to her at a lunch meeting. How will you behave toward her from that point on?

Examine your attitudes toward people with disabilities, especially those disabilities that become visible through their disclosure. Will you replace your stereotyped expectations with expectations drawn from real people with disabilities? Will you choose to replace your stereotyped beliefs about people with disabilities?

Becoming aware of our stereotypes and misguided beliefs is the first step toward changing our belief systems and conscious attitudes toward people with disabilities. Doing so will remove formidable barriers to their full inclusion and participation in our society and workplaces.