Disclosing Your Disability and Negotiating Accommodations

If you are planning to ask for accommodations for your international exchange experience, you will need to disclose your disability at some point during the process. Even if you aren't planning on asking for accommodation, you may still want to disclose your disability. Read more about Disclosure: When and Why to Disclose a Disability for an International Exchange Program.

If you are interested in learning why disclosure is important from the perspective of education abroad professionals, read Disability Disclosure and Study Abroad: Understanding the Issues.

What kinds of accommodations will you need during your international exchange program? You may find that you need different accommodations than you have used in the past, or that your preferred accommodations aren’t available in the countries you will be visiting. Consider using one of our disability-specific accommodation forms to help assess what kinds of accommodations you might need abroad at Assessing the Disability-Related Needs of Exchange Participants.

If you are planning on asking for accommodations, you may need to advocate for yourself, consider compromises and be able to distinguish between necessary and preferred accommodations. To learn more about negotiating accommodations and meeting your disability-related needs during your international exchange program, read our tipsheet Collaborating with International Exchange Staff and Negotiating Accommodations.

For more information about specific accommodations for people with disabilities, including accommodations for the blind and visually impaired, deaf and hard of hearing, and those with mobility disabilities, see Disability-Specific Information.