Use of the personal orientation inventory with disabled athletes

Athletes who are blind or have impairments in hand-eye coordination that prevent writing are unable to complete psychological inventories in the standardized manner, i.e., read silently and answered independently and anonymously. Two studies were conducted on the oral administration of the Personal Orientation Inventory as a measure of self-actualization of disabled athletes. Reliabilities were examined across modalities (oral vs written) by administering the inventory both ways to 25 high school and college athletes, M age = 21.6 yr. Test-retest reliability for oral administration was affirmed in a study of 15 blind elite male athletes and 15 cerebral palsied elite male and female athletes. It was concluded that the inventory, administered orally, may be appropriately used with disabled athletes.