Inclusive Community College Planning for a Blind International Student

By Stephanie Gray, National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange / Mobility International USA Consultant

Dina Mohammed Abdel Fattah, a blind student from Egypt, began in the fall of 2008 studying International Business at Santa Ana College in Santa Ana, California. After completing a one-year certificate program, the goals were for her to return home to apply her newly learned practical skills in a job that will contribute to Egypt’s economic development.

Community Colleges for International Development (CCID), a nationwide consortium of community colleges, placed 169 students from Egypt in twenty-three community colleges across the United States as part of this Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) U.S. Department of State’s Community College Summit Initiative Program. The Summit program provides funding to support international students from Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, South Africa and Turkey to study at U.S. community colleges. Currently, students are recruited by Fulbright Commissions and U.S. Embassy Public Affairs Offices in these countries. Students may pursue studies in fields including agriculture, business management and administration, tourism and hospitality management, health professions including nursing, media, information technology, and engineering science.

How did CCID plan for Dina’s study abroad experience? 

According to Shawn Woodin, Assistant National Director of the Summit program for CCID, the first step was interpreting the self-assessment form Dina provided to the Fulbright Commission in Egypt. Woodin approached ECA and the ECA-sponsored National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange (NCDE), which is administered by Mobility International USA, for resources and information.  In conjunction with Dina and colleagues in Egypt, Woodin determined that Dina would need significant Orientation and Mobility (O&M) training in order to prepare for academic studies on a community college campus where she would live independently with other Summit students in housing arranged by the college.

“My first concern was her mobility,” explains Woodin. “All of the students live independently during their programs. This is why we had some concerns regarding Dina’s mobility skills.  We knew that she would need to be prepared to live independently and take public transportation.  In Egypt, Dina lived with her parents.”

“Initially,” Woodin continues, “we considered a placement at Daytona Community College, but discovered that we could not arrange O&M training for Dina in Daytona prior to the start of the fall 2008 semester.  We looked around and found that Santa Ana College (SAC) could provide mobility and software training at the same time, so Dina was placed at SAC and arrived as scheduled in August 2008.  Because SAC has a large student population and a large staff in place for students with disabilities, we didn’t have to design a special program for Dina.”

Teamwork was instrumental in quickly assessing and coordinating accommodations for Dina at Santa Ana College.  Woodin worked closely with the CCID Regional Program Manager for the West and with the Associate Dean of Students, International Program Coordinator and Disabled Students Programs and Services (DSPS) Specialist at SAC to secure Dina’s placement at SAC and to explore the availability of O&M training and adaptive technology.

Amy Treat, DSPS Specialist at SAC, noted that the only difference between working with Dina and working with US students with disabilities was the initial language barrier, which they worked through to complete her intake form to arrange accommodations.  SAC provides Dina with an escort on campus, as needed, in addition to other resources and contacts at local organizations.  For example, SAC collaborates with the Braille Institute in the area to provide O&M training for students.  Dina also receives informal support from other Summit students and from her mentor host family, which whom she spends several weekends a month.

Although CCID had not placed a student with a disability prior to 2008, they had prepared ahead of time by including a line item for reasonable accommodation in their annual budget.  As a result of this forethought, providing accommodations for Dina was never a financial concern. Woodin also was prepared to investigate other funding sources for reasonable accommodations with ECA had it been necessary.

In addition to conferring with NCDE regarding disability-related accommodations, CCID also approached NCDE with a question regarding liability insurance for Dina and other exchange students while off campus.  The question surfaced by the Risk Management Office at SAC.  Are there liability issues specific to students with disabilities?

In fact, while liability insurance is recommended for all students, the liability concerns for students with disabilities need not be greater than for other international exchange students.  All students must get accustomed to living in an unfamiliar environment, need orientation to learn to navigate their new surroundings and have self-preservation motivations to learn that new environment as quickly as possible.  Although it’s understandable that SAC had concerns regarding Dina’s safety while she was still learning independent navigation skills, Dina likely had concerns, as well.  There are responsibilities that come with hosting a student as well as responsibilities that come with being hosted. O&M training includes safety considerations and students who are blind must be diligent to take necessary safety precautions.  Given appropriate training and support, students who are blind pose no greater liability risk than others while off-campus.

For more information on “liability vs. independence” for international exchange students who are blind, please see pages 60-61 of NCDE’s online publication, Rights and Responsibilities.

The experience of placing a student with a visual disability at a US community college has been a valuable one for both CCID as an organization and for Shawn Woodin personally.  “I now feel more confident that we can do it again, having worked closely with the Fulbright Commission staff and program managers.  We now know what questions to ask up front and to have more communication with disability services offices early on in the placement process.”  Woodin continues, “Personally, it was all new to me. I had worked with deaf students, but never with a visually impaired student. Certainly, it has exposed me to the support services that are available.  I didn’t realize the depth of support available to students with visual disabilities.”

Arranging Orientation and Mobility Training for Foreign Students

Here are a few points to keep in mind when exploring options for arranging O&M training for exchange participants with visual disabilities:

• Find out if the student is available to travel to the United States one to three months before his/her program begins. O&M trainers associated with public school districts often contract with local blind organizations in the summer to provide O&M training to students and adults. State schools for the blind also employ O&M specialists.
• Consider enrolling the student in an O&M training center in the United States pre-program. Many training centers offer three-month training sessions and provide living accommodations for the duration of the training. For example, some Fulbright recipients have received O&M training at the Colorado Center for the Blind in Littleton, CO, before enrolling in universities across the United States.
• The National Federation of the Blind has free training institutes in their affiliate centers across the United States. Some State Commissions for the Blind also offer private fee-based O&M services. Contact the Commission in your state for more information.
• An exchange participant with limited O&M skills may be able to learn the fundamentals of safe cane travel in an intensive week-long course, but that may not be sufficient to ensure that s/he can travel independently in the host community.  Consult with the Disabled Student Services office on campus about the availability of sighted guides to assist the participant to/from classes.  Blind organizations may be able to recommend volunteer sighted guides as well.
• See "related items" on this page for a full tipsheet for international participants who are blind on preparing to come to the United States.

Other resources include: The Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired, the American Foundation for the Blind and the American Council of the Blind and their state affiliates. See the Organization Database for more contacts.