Little work has examined the difficulties faced by physical education teachers who have disabilities and teach able-bodied pupils. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a physical education teacher's disability on elementary school pupils' learning and perceptions of the teacher's competence. Participants were 113 4th and 5th grade pupils attending three elementary schools in the southeastern United States. They were randomly assigned to view one of two videotaped swimming lessons. Both lessons were identical with one exception. In the first lesson, the teacher taught as an able-bodied teacher (ABL), while in the second she taught from a wheelchair (WCL) giving the impression that she had a physical disability. The credibility of both lessons was established by the examination of two expert physical educators, one with a disability and one without. Lesson quality and similarity was also assessed by utilizing three systematic coding systems, the Physical Education Teacher Assessment Instrument (PETAI), the Instrument for Identifying Teaching Styles (IFITS), and task by task analysis to ensure that both lessons were virtually identical. Directly following the viewing of their assigned lesson, pupils completed an examination over lesson content and a questionnaire asking them about their perceptions of the teacher. A 2 x 2 (teacher disability level x content area) repeated measures analysis of variance test was employed with paired comparison t-test follow-ups if necessary in which the Bonferroni method was used to control for multiple comparisons, to ascertain whether or not pupils learned more or less about swimming in general and swimming techniques and strategies when viewing the ABL or WCL. Results revealed that pupils who viewed the WCL scored significantly higher on the technique portion of the examination than pupils who watched the ABL (p = .001). Independent t-tests were then calculated to determine if there were significant differences between the perceptions of pupils who viewed the ABL and the WCL. While the results from the perception data revealed that there were no significant differences between the perceptions of the teacher by pupils in either group, the trend, however, was for pupils who viewed the WCL to rate the teacher more highly. These results provide some support for a sociological explanation of how and why pupils of different ages respond to and learn from physical education teachers with a disability. Keyword(s): adapted physical activity, physical education PK-12, research