Blog

As a wheelchair rider, special education teacher and avid traveler, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to travel to Washington, DC to speak to a group of 100 students from Russia.  The college-age students were about to return to Russia after completing a semester of study in a U.S. college/university.  These enthusiastic, intelligent, curious students had been selected for the highly competitive Year of Exchange in America (YEAR) Program which is administered by the Eurasia Foundation and funded by the U.S. State Department.

We are still learning about all the ways in which to internationalize. Recent changes to learning platforms and the possibilities of the virtual at my university have expanded our notion of access, although there is still much room to reimagine how we are doing things. As a faculty member whose work has always been international, but as someone who comes somewhat recently to disability, I’ve begun to reconsider how we think about what it means to internationalize.

In recent years, we at the National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange have been taking a closer look at how disability intersects with other identities in the context of international exchange experiences

ou include these young people in opportunities to live with host families and study in U.S. high schools for a year, opening a world of possibilities that they may not have envisioned.

For years, the annual Open Doors survey has provided a snapshot of the participation of college students with disabilities and other diverse identities in U.S. study abroad programs. See more: https://miusa.org/news-events/blog

These were common headlines staff were seeing across all sectors. These were also headlines not only event-goers were monitoring, but also event planners, such as ourselves for our originally planned Joining Hands Symposium in Washington, DC for July 2020. 

As I near the end of my fall internship with MIUSA, I am filled with gratitude for the wonderful opportunity to support this amazing organization, championing in international development and exchange while fostering leadership among people with disabilities.