A VAAST test, or Visual approach/avoidance by the self task, is a task that measures a persons want to appraoch or avoid a stimuli by tracking movement too or from it. 

Gettysburg College

This study had participants read definitions of visble and invisbile disabilities and various symptoms and catagorise them accordingly. They were then informed they had to work with a collegeue with a visible or invisible disability that would lead to a promotion. Participants then performed a VAAST test and researchers analyzed their automatic responses.

Study 1 (Granjan et al, 2025)

Granjon, M., Pillaud, N., Popa-Roch, M., Aubé, B., & Rohmer, O. (2025). Attitudes towards invisible disabilities: Evidence from behavioral tendencies. Current Research in Behavioral Sciences, 8, 100164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crbeha.2024.100164

Attitudes towards invisible disabilities: evidence from behavioral tendencies 

VAAST Test 

Study 1 found that people were faster to avoid individuals with invisible disablities than visible disabilities. These results are evidence that individuals with invisible disabilities are associated with more negative attitudes. 

Study 1 Results and Implications(Granjan et al., 2025)

The goal of study 2 was to replicate study one with a group of teachers because that is a group that commonly deals with inclusion of students with disabilities. The methodology was the same as study 1, however the participants were specifically teachers. 

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