On a warm Friday afternoon, 21 young leaders from 15 countries arrived at the Eugene, Oregon Airport for MIUSA’s Preparatory Workshop for Students with Disabilities. The MIUSA workshop was the students’ last stop before embarking on a year-long exchange program in high schools across the United States. For some, it was also their first time meeting peers with similar disabilities.

These students, representing the highly competitive Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) and Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) programs, hailed from Cameroon, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liberia, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, South Africa, Tajikistan, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.

At MIUSA’s Preparatory Workshop, students learned and practiced how to confidently request and utilize disability-related accommodations, to ensure they can experience everything they hope to experience during their exchange year. To prepare students for the year ahead, MIUSA’s workshop built on students’ knowledge of disability laws and culture in the U.S., and the disability-related accommodations and tools that may be available to them in their host schools and communities.

Group of students including one riding a wheelchair and one holding a white cane smiling on a gravel trail with trees behind them. — Students explored accessible trails and all-terrain equipment on a hike with community members at Mount Pisgah Arboretum.

Every activity of MIUSA’s Preparatory Workshop aimed to prepare students for the various situations they may encounter as exchange students with disabilities by providing them with knowledge, tools, and confidence to ask for the support and “reasonable accommodations” (e.g. access to elevators or ramps, live captions, sign language interpretation, preferred seating in class, extended time on assignments, etc.) they may need during their exchange year.

“[After the workshop], I feel more prepared. I was more nervous than excited [when I first arrived in Oregon] but now I don’t feel nervous at all.” – 2025-26 FLEX/YES student who is blind

“The MIUSA workshop was an empowering experience that strengthened my leadership skills.” – 2025-26 FLEX/YES student who is Hard of Hearing

Key activities at the workshop included:

Accommodations and Accessibility

Students learned about important laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the history of action by people with disabilities that led to laws being enacted. They also experienced the access and types of accommodations that resulted from the laws, which make schools, facilities, parks, transportation, and activities accessible to community members with and without disabilities.

“I learned a lot of things I didn’t know before, and it was so good to learn what I can ask for as accommodations and what [the disability laws] are.” -2025-26 FLEX/YES student who is blind

High School Visit

A visit to Willamette High School prepared students to consider how they will navigate their U.S. high schools. With indoor and outdoor campus space, staircases and elevators, classrooms filled with desks, and lockers lining the hallways, students were asked to think about:

What support might you need to navigate these hallways when they are crowded?
Where in the classroom might you need to sit to see or hear your teachers?
Could you carry a backpack full of heavy textbooks from class on the first floor to your next class upstairs?
Who might you reach out to, to request the disability-related accommodations you need?

Two students smile and stand in front of a row of lockers. — Students visited a local high school to experience what it may feel like navigating around their host schools.

Adaptive Recreation

Community activities, such as hiking at Mount Pisgah with all-terrain wheelchairs, riding adaptive cycles, and visiting a local fitness center that welcomes people with and without disabilities, gave students an opportunity to consider new ways they and their peers could participate in recreation in their host communities. For many students, exploring adaptive equipment and accessible facilities was a new and exciting experience.

“[The recreation workshop] was fun! I loved using the different bikes and learning how people with [different] disabilities use them and the sports wheelchairs.” –2025-26 FLEX/YES student who is Deaf

Two students ride a side-by-side tandem tricycle together on a bike path. — Students explored various types of adaptive cycles, including this tandem side-by-side tricycle (pictured), hand-cycles, scooters, and bicycles at the Hilyard Community Center.

Volunteer Experience

MIUSA’s Preparatory Workshop also gave students their first of many volunteer experiences while in the U.S., as community service is a requirement for all FLEX and YES students. Partnering with Eugene-based School Garden Project, students spent a morning maintaining a local garden used for outdoor education programs, and later that afternoon, discussed ideas for other types of accessible volunteer opportunities in their host communities.

“It was an enjoyable experience to volunteer in the garden, because we all worked together as a team and built enduring ties. I felt very happy when I helped other students of the FLEX and YES programs.” -2025-26 FLEX/YES student with low vision

Three students holding an overgrown plant at a community garden. — In partnership with the School Garden Project, students volunteered together to clean up overgrown garden beds as one example of accessible volunteer work.

Engaging with Local Community

During their short time in Eugene, students met many community members with and without disabilities, including high school and college students, recreation leaders, athletes, teachers, business owners, artists, and more. These conversations provided opportunities to practice English or American Sign Language in conversations about disability experience, family, cultures, travel, school life, hobbies, and more.

Students also met individually with school-based specialists who provided more detailed explanations of the types of support and services that may be available in students’ host schools. Specialists shared ideas and strategies for students as they prepared to begin their year in U.S. high schools.

As one student reflected, “I learned a lot about Americans with disabilities and about the accommodations I can request if I need them [during my exchange year].” -2025-26 FLEX/YES student with a physical disability

As students have begun to settle into their host communities, we invite you to join us in wishing these young leaders of the 2025-26 MIUSA Preparatory Workshop a successful exchange year!