As part of NCDE’s Access to Exchange Externship, Rachel Malone interviewed six travelers with physical disabilities about working with personal assistants (PAs) abroad. Below are key takeaways. Tune into Rachel’s YouTube channel for the full interviews, and read about her own study abroad experience in Ireland!
Personal Assistance Abroad looks different for everyone.
People with disabilities, including those with physical disabilities, chronic illness, and intellectual disabilities, travel with personal assistants for all different reasons. Thus, personal assistance support looks different depending on the person, their needs, and their international exchange opportunity.
There is no one way to travel abroad as a disabled person with a PA. We encourage you to explore what accessibility can look like for you during international exchange. Learn more about finding, funding, and working with a PA abroad.
Using Personal Assistance Services Abroad
Internationally, disabled exchange alumni have:
- Received personal assistance services, including but not limited to domestic tasks, personal care, and transportation / travel support
- Found PAs through professional agencies, friends, family, and partners
- Worked with PAs from their home and host countries
- Had PAs assist anywhere from one hour a day to 24/7
- Shared housing with their PAs or lived separately
Who Can Assist Me When I Go Abroad?
Bring a PA from home: This could be a hired professional or a family member, friend, or partner.
People have worked with independent living centers and care agencies to hire and manage PAs. Exchange alumni have successfully petitioned their care management agencies to allow them to study abroad with their PAs, receiving a waiver that permits the PAs to work and be paid overseas.
Sergio Taleisnik, an Argentinian who studied in Florida for two years, initially did not plan to work with a full-time PA while studying abroad. He prioritized saving money and planned to hire a PA for daily bathroom and hygiene assistance. However, his host university required him to have a full-time PA in order to live on-campus. Since a professional PA was beyond his budget, Sergio found a young man through friends and family who was eager to join him for the entire two-year program. Reflecting on his experience, Sergio is glad he worked full-time with a PA, as the increased accessibility enabled him to fully participate in many opportunities during his time abroad.
Disabled alumni have also worked with more than one PA during their international exchange. For her exchange in Berlin, Germany, Abigail Lehner worked with two PAs from home who were friends from her college. To cover Abigail’s eight week program, one PA worked with her for the first three weeks and her second PA worked for the last five weeks.
Find a PA in the host country: This could be a hired professional or someone in your local community, such as a host family member or fellow program participant.
Shea Megale, who studied abroad in the Czech Republic, traveled with her father for the first week to interview and train a local PA. Shea explained, “We didn’t want to commit to anybody until we already worked with them in person. It’s very difficult to hire someone in another country and just trust them entirely with your care without meeting them and teaching them.”
How Will I Pay for Personal Assistance Abroad?
Government-Assisted Disability Benefits
People who live or work with professional PAs in their home country have chosen to travel abroad with their regular PA. For U.S. citizens, the Medicaid buy-in-program with supplemental wages can provide compensation for international trips.
Additional funding or subsidy from your program
Some exchange programs provide additional funding for personal assistance services. This funding may cover the PA’s travel, housing, food, and/or an hourly wage. Host institutions may reduce or waive the costs of room and board for a PA. To cover PA living expenses, sometimes a collaborative approach is a solution, where the PA contributes, the traveler contributes, and the program contributes.
Compensation can come in many forms, not only financial
Funding can be a major barrier towards accessing needed personal assistance during international exchange. Bringing a friend, family member, or partner from home can reduce costs. This may look like financially covering cost-of-travel-and-living, but the PA may receive little or no direct financial compensation for the support they provide abroad.
Disabled travelers note the experiential compensation of bringing a PA from home and providing the PA with an international opportunity. It can and should be a fulfilling cross-cultural experience for the PAs as well. During his study abroad, Sergio Taleisnik wanted his PA to enjoy the many benefits of exploring while abroad. The PA borrowed Sergio’s car so that the PA could go on personal errands and other adventures in his free time.
Personal Assistance Services can increase full participation and reduce accessibility barriers during your international exchange.
For people with disabilities, international exchange is often a transformative experience to challenge yourself, deepen your cross-cultural connections, and navigate unfamiliar environments. Living abroad can also distance you from the support and resources that you’re accustomed to living with in your home country.
People with disabilities who work with PAs in their home countries can continue to do so when abroad. Additionally, many people who do not receive personal assistance in their home country choose to work with a PA for a variety of reasons.
PAs often fill in the gaps in accessibility that being outside of your home country creates. Personal assistance can increase accessibility when navigating unfamiliar built environments and barriers.
PAs not only assist with aspects of daily living, but they also can act as secondary advocates when navigating accessibility barriers together. For example, Brook Ellingson shared how her PA would often step in and advocate on her behalf when she was unable to. She noted it was helpful to have someone who understood the situation and her needs.
How to navigate interpersonal dynamics abroad
Continually build trust, communication, and mutual respect with your PA(s)
When bringing a PA with you abroad, you both are experiencing the ups and downs of international exchange together. Disabled travelers emphasized the importance of clear communication with their PA about expectations, boundaries, and capacities. This may look like regularly checking in on how both of your needs are being met. When working with a PA who is also a friend, family member, or partner, you both will be navigating different roles. Travelers recommend communicating about how thepersonal assistance work can impact your personal relationship, and the boundaries between those roles.
When working with a local PA in the host country, communication can look different, especially with language barriers and cultural differences. Translation apps and body language can help bridge these gaps and build a shared understanding. This can be a wonderful opportunity to learn about the local culture and develop a deeper relationship.
Disabled travelers noted how their relationships with PAs often formed professional and interpersonal bonds. It is important that both people treat one another with respect, care, and compassion.
Prioritize time apart and the well-being of both people
Traveling, living, and working with another person can be exhausting at times for both people. Disabled travelers highlighted the additional mental-labor involved in coordinating personal assistance services abroad, such as managing paperwork, schedules, activities, and travel for another person on top of participating in their own international exchange.
For PAs, especially those ‘on-call’ 24/7, there is extensive mental and physical labor involved in providing accessibility support. Creating a schedule that includes breaks for PAs enables them to rest while also ensuring you are receiving the assistance you need.
“Ultimately, you’re stuck with one person, 24 hours a day and it can get really exhausting. So I always tried to make sure that I was allowing the caregivers to have some breaks during their day where they were able to take some time for themselves.”– Abigail Lehner
Working with a PA abroad often involves compromise, mutual support, and exploring what reciprocity and interdependence looks like in the relationship.
Connect with local communities to expand support
Engaging with local communities abroad and program participants can increase accessibility. For example, connecting with disability-inclusive organizations, like a wheelchair basketball community, can introduce you to a network of locals.
During her study abroad, Shea Megale, who hired a local PA, was also supported by the local community. For example, while exploring a medieval town, Shea received help from several locals who assisted her in pushing her powerchair up steep hills. Shea also shared “I had a lot of people with me from the film program who I was comfortable with carrying me… I was very fortunate to have a larger network of people.”
Building relationships with others can open doors to giving and receiving support. Local disability communities can also offer guidance on how to navigate accessibility, disability culture, and exploration abroad. We encourage you to seek assistance through a variety of relationships.
“Nothing was easy, but everything was doable.” – Shea Megale
Even with personal assistance, disabled travelers navigate access barriers throughout their international exchange. Shea navigated inaccessible showers in her building when her PA could not physically carry her. Shea problem-solved these barriers by asking to use a nearby health center with accessible showers and then worked with her PA and an employee at the center to carry her in and out of the showers.
There are various approaches to accessibility in international exchange. Personal Assistance Services can be one part of your accessibility plan. There is no wrong or right way to increase access. We encourage you to seek out the support and resources that enable you to thrive.
“Having a disability should not prevent you from studying abroad. Honestly, it was one of the best things that I’ve ever done with my life. It came with a lot of fear and hesitation in the beginning. But, when I was there, in the moment, I felt very proud of myself for saying, “Hey, I can do this.” It turned out to be a really great experience and I encourage others to go after it!” – Abigail Lehner