Advocating and Adapting Abroad

Having studied abroad three times – in Canada, England and Mexico – I find that I now embrace my disability and recognize how to challenge the stereotypes of people with disabilities. Whenever I get down or am lacking confidence, I think back to all of the things I've accomplished abroad – the places visited, the cultures embraced, the ideals of others – and it gives me a reality check.

I come from a small town with two traffic lights, and I've had a constant desire to travel and experience other parts of the world. After my rehabilitation experience for a traumatic brain injury and the barriers other people set for me, part of me wanted to study abroad because I could have fresh start. I could experience doing things on my own, and begin showing my leadership, maturity and capability. Going abroad helped me grow into my individuality and advocate for myself. I wish more people would take advantage of such opportunities.

Making Connections

Michigan State University (MSU) offers the Freshman Study Abroad Seminar to Canada, Ireland or Mexico, which is an excellent way for college students to meet other freshman and professors prior to moving onto campus. I wanted to take advantage of this opportunity, so I went to Quebec, Canada. Because I am registered with the MSU Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities, I must meet one-on-one with my instructors and self identify as a person with a disability. I looked highly upon this international summer experience to test out my MSU academic accommodations and learn the strategies necessary to communicate with college faculty when it comes to accommodations.

In Quebec, I discovered that another student in my group had dyslexia. We actually bumped into each other at the beginning of the trip, trying to set up times to meet with our professors to discuss what accommodations we would need. Wow, was this a relief— somebody else who had a disability! We hit it off right away because we could relate to when it comes time to disclose and situations we encounter. In my experience, many professors wonder what the student’s disability is (by law a student does not have to specify); I feel it is much easier to disclose my disability and explain the situation to my professors so that we can work together throughout the semester. When we returned from the trip, the other student with dyslexia and I were both provided extra time to complete our projects while the rest of the group had one week to turn theirs in. It made me feel better knowing that I wasn't in it alone, and that other people may require different timelines to be equivalent to other students in the class.

Changing Perspectives

My second study abroad experience to London seemed exciting and scary at the same time. The thought of being away from all of my support systems and accommodations meant that I must do a lot more on my own. I had a lot of self-doubt. Looking back after the experience, I see that it boosted my confidence in myself and my self-esteem because I can now say, “Hey, I did those things!”

My mom was extremely influential in encouraging me to take the risks of studying abroad. In seventh grade I acquired a traumatic brain injury and was in an intensive rehabilitation program for three years; during that period my mother pushed me to succeed and helped me along the way. Studying abroad and stepping outside of one's comfort zone can be scary, and my mother provided me with the support I needed to know that if I got ill or had complications, I could always return home from the study abroad program. Naturally, she was concerned for me, but realized it was time for me to go out on my own.

In the beginning I was homesick a lot. The first night when I arrived in London I made a count down chart of how many days until I could return back to the USA! With the time difference during the week it made phone calls challenging, but my classmates and I would stop by the Internet cafes after class and email our family and friends. I have three older brothers who would email me too, tell me about their comical experiences back home and assure me I wasn't missing too much. It helped me to realize that I needed to make the most out of my international experience in London. I had taken a literature class in high school, and I had fun emailing my former teacher about places I saw, like Stonehenge, that we read about in class. By the end of the trip, I was NOT ready to return home!

Opportunities to Educate

I went abroad to London with 32 other students with whom I also lived. In a lot of ways my disability is invisible except that I had paralysis on my left side, so as my fatigue levels increase, I stagger more and trip over myself. This made walking on the cobblestones and the sidewalks challenging at times. The other students often had questions about this. So, as an icebreaker to talking about my disability, sometimes we would discuss movies with actors with disabilities and talk about what was true about the movie versus society's perspective.

My professors and I had great working relationships, but at the same time they were not very educated on students with disabilities and how to facilitate accommodations. Sometimes my professors were afraid to ask questions, because they did not want to insult me and say the wrong thing (i.e. proper disability terms or person first language). I spent a lot of time educating them.

Advice on Accommodations

As a disability-related accommodation, I have 100% extended testing time due to my delayed cognitive processing times, and all our exams and assignments were written essays. In the United States, I have a digital tape recorder so that I can record my lectures, download them onto my computer, and then play them back from the computer. In London I did not have a computer, and thus resorted to the mini tape recorder and tapes. However, this extra effort meant that on the weekends and nights when the other students would go out, I needed to make decisions about being a college student – living up the experience abroad and also tending to my academic responsibilities. At that time I didn't know that it was possible to have a reduced class load, and I wanted to fit in as much as possible (I was a freshman still). But now, this past year I have been on a reduced course schedule, and I realize now that it would have been helpful while I was in London, too.

Fatigue was the biggest concern I had prior to going abroad because some days I have to spend all day in bed resting. I thought it would be a social barrier, but I made many social connections with the students I studied with as well as people overseas. I was also able to coordinate independent trips to Berlin, Germany, even though I do not speak a bit of German, and navigated my way through Rome, Italy on my own.

The best part about the London exchange is that we were able to go on field trips – all the museums and art galleries are free, so we had interactive classrooms, which is my preferred method of learning (plus it cuts down on my reading and writing processing times!). I encourage others to look into interactive study abroad programs such as this, because I know I do better academically and my interest level increases when there are alternative ways to learn the materials. Besides this class structure, I found these other things to be helpful in traveling abroad and suggest others to:

• Take a planner

• Be confident in yourself (it may take you longer to do things, but it all builds character)

• Do what you need to do in order to learn

• Ask for help when needed

• Rest when needed (and don't be embarrassed about it)

• Make sure to have fun!

This article was solicited and edited by the NCDE, and a version of it was published in the National Youth Leadership Network online newsletter.