People with disabilities represent a particularly vulnerable social group, given that their level of impairment as well as the attitudes and prejudices of society can negatively affect their well-being. Therefore, research on attitudes towards people with disabilities as well as constructs that have been shown to be related to attitudes towards this group, such as empathy and the nature of the study program, can provide insight into society's perception of this social group. The three approaches to disabled people that reflect attitudes were considered – the compassion model according to which disabled people are victims of their circumstances, the medical model according to which disability is something innate and abnormal, and the social model of human rights that emphasizes the need to create a more inclusive society. The aim of this research was to examine the differences in students' attitudes towards the theoretical approaches to people with disabilities, while determining differences in the level of empathy between students of helping and non-helping professions and differences in the level of empathy regarding agreement with the appropriate approach to people with disabilities. The research was conducted through an online questionnaire on a convenient sample of 103 students at the University of Zadar, of which 65 were students in helping professions and 38 were students in non-helping professions. Participants expressed their own agreement with one of the three core statements of the approaches to persons with disabilities as a measure of attitudes and completed the emotional empathy scale. It was shown that 84.6% of students in helping professions and 81.6% of students in non-helping professions agree with the social model of human rights. 9.2% of students of helping professions and 10.5% of students of nonhelping professions agreed with the statement describing the compassion model. Finally, 6.2% of students of helping professions agree with the medical model and 7.9% of students of non-helping professions. Furthermore, contrary to the hypothesis, no difference was found in the level of empathy between students of study programs focused on helping professions and those focused on non-helping professions. Finally, there was no difference in participants' level of empathy regarding the approach to people with disabilities they agreed with despite the expected differences.