This paper, presented at a physiotherapy conference, describes a study identifying the effect of cultural and traditional values on the success of a rehabilitation program for spinal cord injured people. One-hundred-twelve (112) community leaders of different backgrounds responded to a distributed questionnaire. Questions explored whether these leaders knew the needs of people with Spinal Cord Injury (SCI). Results indicated that while 69% of the respondents were familiar with the needs of people with SCI, they did not understand the full implications of the disability. Community leaders' expectations of injured people's ability to marry were generally higher than those of the patients themselves. This shows that the opinions of the leaders are unrealistic compared with the patients' attitudes. The author concludes that any rehabilitation program must acknowledge the impact of cultural values on the rehabilitation process.