Traveling through Central America on an exchange to promote peace, listening to people who are oppressed and anguished, Jean Parker, who is blind, says she found solidarity among disabled people and non-disabled people alike.

Parker joined a delegation to Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua coordinated by the Center for Global Education. To prepare for the mental and physical rigors of the program, Parker requested time during the orientation both in the United States and in Honduras to discuss what she needed from the group and what she could offer. "It was very much an even exchange of information," Parker says. "In this instance, I know it was very appreciated by the group, because they told me so, and it contributed to making everybody comfortable." During her presentation, Parker discussed effective ways for people to give her information. This became crucial during meetings with villagers and organizers. She needed to know what people looked like, how they were sitting, whether they looked uncomfortable, whether they were armed with weapons or whether there was a video camera nearby. "As our exchange progressed, I realized that my needs weren’t really different than anyone else’s," says Parker. "I needed restaurant menus read to me and so did others. Other people didn’t want to get separated from the group or to travel alone either."

During this exchange, she and her fellow participants talked to people about their experiences being tortured and witnessing massacres, about their personal losses and the political climate at the time. "This was very difficult work that we were doing," Parker says. "These situations were very tense. I came away with a whole different perspective on my own life and on a totally different reality from that which I lived at home." Parker’s pre-exchange involvement in the Denver Peace Project, which collects and transports items such as wheelchairs and crutches to the Organization of Disabled Revolutionaries in Managua, Nicaragua, fueled her interest in Nicaragua and Central American leadership issues. "One thing I observed, particularly in women’s groups, was a sense of developing leadership in ways that were more conducive to women’s lives," she says. "I wanted to know more about this way of developing leaders and how a group of women or cooperative of women can get together, set goals and then take on responsibilities as they occur in a more intuitive sense than someone always being the top leader."

As a blind woman traveling with a group of North Americans in Central America, Parker says she encountered both acceptance and hostility. But she doesn’t attribute it to her disability. Instead, she felt mostly identified as a North American. The hostility, she says, came from government officials threatened by the group’s presence. The acceptance flowed from organizers and villagers eager to tell their stories.

"Members of the Organization of Disabled Revolutionaries told me that you could make all the efforts you want for disability rights, but they associated it with planting seeds and explained that the soil has to be fertile," she says. "So the analogy points to the idea that society has to be receptive of change."

Upon returning to the United States, Parker produced a slide show that she presented to disability organizations, churches, women’s groups and her sponsors. The detailed, descriptive information that her fellow exchangees had learned to share with her proved to be very useful in creating an educational and powerful presentation. Parker feels it important that people who participate in any kind of exchange share the impact the experience had on their lives so that learning and change ripple out beyond the individual.

Her successful experience resulted in part from the support she received from the Center for Global Education. Parker says the center welcomed her into the group and its staff asked how they could be of assistance. Regina McGoff, marketing and development director for the center, says Parker has been one of few people with disabilities on the programs. Although accessibility in Central America is limited, McGoff says, the center is willing to work with people with various disabilities to include them in the exchanges.