When Mr. Avraham Rabby was selected as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer, he was the first blind person to serve. At the time, he spoke English and Hebrew, and during his career, he learned Spanish and French. Through the Foreign Service, Mr. Rabby experienced the world, completing seven jobs on five continents and witnessing historic events.

For people who are blind or low vision, learning a foreign language and getting the resources needed just became easier. The National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange (NCDE) encourages people who are blind or have visual impairments to learn a foreign language and pursue international travel with a purpose®. Towards this goal, the NCDE published a new informational guide to support blind and low vision students to take a broad range of foreign language courses, from Arabic to Turkish, by providing the tools needed so that course materials can be accessed.

Read “Accessing Foreign Language Materials as a Blind or Low Vision Student” online!

Also download in various formats.

This free resource includes:

• The capability of commonly used assistive technology and software to handle foreign languages
• Guidance for locating audio, braille or large print materials in foreign languages
• Tips on transcribing braille textbooks in foreign languages or using readers and scribes
• Considerations for studying the foreign language abroad.

The type of languages that one chooses to learn has an impact on competitiveness for future employment. Because of changing economic and geopolitical influences, more courses and scholarships are being offered for people interested in learning what the U.S. government calls “critical need languages,” such as Arabic, Chinese, Hindi/Urdu, Japanese, Korean, Persian/Farsi, Russian and Turkish.

With the goal of increasing U.S. citizen’s skills in these languages, the U.S. federal government sponsors opportunities through the National Security Language Initiative’s summer language institutes in the United States and abroad, or as added language enrichment funds for study abroad fellowships. Primary emphasis of this new informational guide is on accessing the reading and writing components of critical need languages, although information is also applicable to more commonly taught languages such as French, German, and Spanish.

The National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange (NCDE), which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and administered by Mobility International USA, works to increase the participation and inclusion of people with disabilities in international exchange programs. Contact us at: 541-343-1284 (tel/tty), clearinghouse@miusa.org, http://www.miusa.org/ncde.