International Students with Disabilities on Community College Campuses

International students with disabilities are studying at community colleges across the country. Many arrive on an F-1 student visa only to find that a community college meets their needs better than a four-year institution. Others are studying in intensive English language programs alongside other non-native English speakers. Still others have been recruited by multinational businesses and are taking courses to build their professional skills.

“We’ve not really had to do recruiting on our own. The universities around us typically do a lot of the recruiting of international students, and when the students go there, many realize they don’t like having 300 people in their lecture class. So, through word of mouth, they learn that there’s a more affordable option where the classes are smaller, where the facility is newer, and where it is easier to get around,” says Julie Pitts, Program Director of the Intercultural Center at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas. “The [international] students with disabilities who are here have strong support systems in families or close friends who are here working with international companies.”

Convenient location, open enrollment policies, availability of night classes and English language courses also make community colleges attractive to international students. “It’s not just the cost factor, but location since we have six campuses across Virginia. It’s more conducive than traveling from northern Virginia into Washington, DC,” says Mark Kreidler, who works in the Northern Virginia Community College system.

Marialaura Izarra, a Venezuelan student who has Frederich Ataxia and uses a manual wheelchair, learned about Santa Fe Community College (SFCC) in Gainesville, Florida, from friends who had attended it. "Back home I considered the university but when I really started paying attention to the details, there just was not enough accessibility. I had other needs than just their ramps or elevators. The disability resource center [at SFCC] is an amazing resource for me and one of the reasons that I came here," says Izarra, who uses notetakers in class and a computer for essay tests. "I like the accessibility; it’s easy for me to get around anywhere. The teachers are helpful and the classes are not too big, so it’s not a hard change from high school."

While international students with disabilities can receive disability-related accommodations at any U.S. post-secondary institution, they may not realize that 40 percent of American college students with disabilities attend two-year colleges. “At a small college, the disability service providers and the students really get to know one another in a way that seems different than in big schools where the programs have to serve a larger amount of students,” says Emil Gavrailov, an international student from Bulgaria who worked at the College of the Siskiyous disability office in California.

"The community college has really embraced me and it has been like my home. It doesn’t matter the color, race, ethnicity and even being deaf, I feel equal here," says Isidore Niyongabo, a student from Burundi studying at Ohlone College in California.

Community colleges offer students with disabilities services and opportunities that often parallel or exceed those offered at traditional four-year institutions, but these benefits are sometimes misunderstood by international recruiters and students. The parents of a U.K. student with dyslexia had misconceptions about U.S. community colleges since these two-year colleges accept all students, says Carol Duss, International Student Admissions Coordinator at Austin Community College, Texas. “Just because we have open admissions the parents thought it would be easier classes,” she says, which is not the case.

Students with dyslexia, however, may choose a community college since its environment provides more individualized attention and classes that teach the skills needed to meet the expectations of higher education. Community colleges often have tutoring centers and pre-enrollment mentoring programs to teach students with learning disabilities the study strategies needed to succeed in college. “I like Montgomery College [in Maryland] because they have the College Access Program that I did before I started my first semester at college,” says Azulai Booker, an American student with dyslexia, about a program also open to international students. “They will help strengthen your English and reading skills, and teach study and time management skills. They really helped me out a lot.”

Disclosure Issues

International students who transfer from a nearby university typically are aware of the disability services available at U.S. colleges and the documentation process needed to arrange accommodations in advance. Also, students who  received services in their home countries, worked with their international study abroad staff, and/or contacted the disability office before arriving in the United States, often come prepared.

“[A hard of hearing student from Brazil] let me know upfront about his disability. We sent him to the disability services so he could give them the paperwork on his documented disability, and from there, they were able to assist him. He’s had a note taker and uses a hearing aid,” says Angela Adame-Smith, who advises international students at Seminole Community College in Florida. Laetitia Rieck, a student with a non-apparent spinal neck injury, sent translated doctor letters to the disability office at Arizona Western College even before she left the Netherlands. "Disability services [at colleges] are not well-known in the Netherlands; in Arizona it was well published that it was normal for students to have this service and there was a lot of help on their website," says Rieck.

For international students with and without disabilities, learning about how the Americans with Disabilities Act and other legislation has worked to include people with disabilities in all aspects of the community may be a valuable addition to an introduction to American culture.

On the other hand, students who may not have been diagnosed with a disability in their home countries, or have learned to downplay their disability due to cultural pressures, may arrive in the United States and find that they can’t succeed without disability services or adaptations. “I know there are a lot of our international students who have conditions that by U.S. standards would be considered disabilities, such as epilepsy, and they’re not registered and don’t seek specific services from our Access Services office. Maybe in their own countries, these types of disabilities may not be acknowledged or may be culturally shunned. The students are not going to bring it to anyone’s attention and certainly not until they are more comfortable with the acceptance of their disability here,” says Pitts.

“Some tell us right away [about their disability], especially international students who are blind. Others wait until they get into trouble and need help,” says Duss, recalling a couple of students from England who experienced academic and medical issues once they arrived at Austin Community College. “Given their age group, it’s not as much of a priority to them to learn about disability laws and services as it is for their parents. A lot of the students don’t want to identify [as a person with a disability] and they want to fit in with everyone else, which is understandable. They can get an education despite having a disability and that really makes a difference for them.”

For some international students the suggestion that they may have a disability is a new concept, says Janie Worrall, Student Services Manager at Pima Community College in Arizona. “They arrived here in America and it suddenly became glaring that they couldn’t survive if they didn’t request accommodations for their vision, hearing, learning or mental health issues, and then they realized that they had access to services that they didn’t have in their own country.”

International student offices often need to build a relationship with the student and slowly introduce him or her to what it means to have a disability. “Our students are on a walk-in basis so most students will go to whomever is available, but the students with disabilities, by choice, tend to go to the same person. For us that’s a good thing because we have been able to develop rapport and vocabulary with specific students because it does take longer to clearly understand what their issues are,” says Pitts, Program Director of her community college’s Intercultural Center.

A student from Pakistan attending the North Harris Montgomery Community College District's Cy-Fair College in Cypress, Texas had never heard of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) before arriving in the United States. In college, his self-esteem diminished as he struggled to stay focused on his studies. When trouble keeping up with classes pushed him into immigration status issues, he decided to see a doctor. "After getting treatment, I recalled all those things teachers said to me back in Pakistan; one teacher told my dad I was a 'daydreamer.' I wished I had known it was AD/HD then," says this computer science major, who asked not to be named. "I felt like I’ve wasted my time; I should have gotten this [diagnosis] sooner. When I want to read or study now, I can do it. When my counselor told me about test accommodations, I realized there’s so much help." He also notices a difference in his confidence level in talking with teachers, and in his social life because he can concentrate on conversations.    

International offices can create a welcoming and awareness building environment by having interns with disabilities or positive images of people with disabilities in their centers, and by adding a cultural or legal piece about disability to international student orientations. For international students with and without disabilities, learning about how the Americans with Disabilities Act and other legislation has worked to include people with disabilities in all aspects of the community may be a valuable addition to an introduction to American culture.

Providing Services Through Disability Offices

Students with disabilities are covered by disability non-discrimination laws when in the United States, regardless of citizenship. “With disability staff, you have to get through the initial, ‘Wait a minute, they are not a U.S. citizen, and I’m not sure they are entitled to the same services we give U.S. citizens.’ You might run into somebody that then has to check, and inevitably they come back and say, ‘Well, they are our students, and they are entitled to it,’” says Worrall from Pima Community College in Arizona.

Rieck, the international student with a non-apparent disability from the Netherlands, depended on Arizona Western College's disability staff to support her when teachers questioned her accommodation needs. "Especially if my stress level was high, or in the beginning because I didn’t know how to handle [my pain or fatigue], I would miss a couple weeks out the semester. My teachers would tell me I couldn’t fall behind, and I’d have to go to the disability services who would explain that if you have a disability, and because of that you are sick, the teachers are not allowed to have that affect your attendance points," says Rieck. "In some classes they would give me extra time to finish my assignments, but I wouldn’t do less work overall. They are just more flexible with me completing the work."

Under U.S. disability laws, the community college is required to provide disability-related accommodations and services to all qualified students, and the cost of providing services is based on the entire institution’s budget instead of one office or department. “It is a sensitive issue in that the college bears the brunt of the costs of interpreting that the deaf international students aren’t asked to reimburse the college for,” says Kreidler, Director of Interpreting Services at Northern Virginia Community College. “It’s one of those things where it’s great to have a diverse population not only of hearing but also deaf students, but when I start looking at my budget, I begin wondering: How we will do this?”

To estimate their student population’s needs and associated costs for the upcoming year, admissions, disability and international student offices can collaborate to improve services and plan budgets. For example, campuses could create a postcard with disability services information and a checkbox the students mark indicating they want to be contacted about available services. This postcard could be included with acceptance information sent to all incoming foreign students. “Our advising is a little different model from most schools; we have a professional counseling department that also does our academic advising. We partner with them and also with our Access office when international students come in. Once we know they have a condition that will require some support services, we match them with a three person team immediately,” says Pitts, who advises international students in Kansas.

“It is really easy to work with disability services staff, but they are also intimidated because the student is from a different culture. They are relying on our style of communication with the student and our sensitivity to their culture as we are relying on them for understanding the academic and support needs for that disability,” says Worrall about her former work with international students in Arizona. “The disability services office told us one student ‘just needs to go get tested.’ They were matter of fact, but we said, ‘We have to approach it carefully and, in conversations with the student, introduce this concept that he has a learning disability that is affecting his classroom learning.’”

If a student has an awareness of their disability before coming to the United States, and brings documentation from their home country, the community college is not required to accept the same documentation that the student’s home educational institution accepted. At the same time, U.S. community colleges cannot outright refuse to accept any foreign documentation or neglect to check if the student’s documentation (while different) could be acceptable to qualify his or her disability.  What this means is that a community college can choose to accept the documentation a student brings or they can request additional documentation in order to negotiate the most appropriate disability-related accommodations.

“The question is: How can we get that documentation translated properly, how do we make sure the condition they have is something that fits under the criteria we need to support them, and then what kind of support do they need that we consider reasonable? The disability office is thrown off by the documentation and finding someone who has the skill in the medical field that can translate it properly. The kind of diagnostic tools that they use abroad are not the same that we use here,” says Pitts. She feels credentialing organizations, who do comparisons of foreign transcripts, could expand their services to assist in this process, or at least a conference presentation on this topic could address issues and raise awareness for those in the field.

“There are so many caveats that we have to consider – it’s not an issue of discrimination at all, it’s an understanding of what you need to have in place in advance. When you have an individual student, and you’re really trying to work with him or her, that’s when these issues unfold,” she says.

Accessing Health Care and Insurance Issues

While international students with disabilities qualify for services and accommodations on community college campuses, they typically do not qualify for federal or state funding through Medicare, Medicaid or the Social Security Administration. So, unlike Americans with disabilities who may receive this state or federal funding to supplement their personal health care or medical equipment needs, international students have to find other sources to obtain wheelchairs, hearing aids, urology supplies, personal assistant services, diagnostic testing, etc.  “The majority of international students are just making it. We are not dealing with a wealthy group of students,” says Worrall. “This whole notion of quick fixes that money can buy – testing or doctor visits, for example – insurance doesn’t pay for the full cost of American care.”

“The main financial issue has been getting the kind of care international students with disabilities may need after they are here. We have health insurance available to them with very good coverage, but the problem is that pre-existing conditions [may be excluded for] a 12-month waiting period, so that first year is very difficult if they haven’t come well prepared,” says Pitts.

Most insurance plans specify a length of time before the effective date of the policy as the exclusion cut-off. For example, if a policy contains a 30-day pre-existing exclusion policy, any medical condition, injury or illness that manifested, was treated or for which a new prescription was issued within that 30-day period would not be covered under the policy and any expenses incurred for that condition would not be reimbursed. International students should be made aware of this before purchasing insurance, and be allowed to purchase alternative insurance plans if they need additional coverage. They should also look into whether or not some services are limited or excluded from their plans, such as mental health services since some community colleges don't have psychiatrists available on campus.

Rieck, the student with a spinal neck injury attending Arizona Western College, had to pay out-of-pocket the first year and stock up on medications before leaving home when the required international student health plan didn't cover her physical and massage therapy, medications and other medical needs in the United States. The second year, her father discovered a health insurance in the Netherlands that would cover all her medical needs while in Arizona.

“Most students are shocked to see the costs of prescription medication in the United States,” says Duss of Austin Community College, who adds that most international students will have health insurance even if it's optional and not mandatory.

International students should look into whether or not some services are limited or excluded from their health insurance plans, such as mental health services.

Youssef Hamami from Morocco was required to have health insurance to come on his F-1 visa, which turned out for the best when he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis during his first year at Tidewater Community College in Virginia and his insurance covered 80 percent of his medical costs. Some international students however may need assistance to cover out-of-pocket medical expenses. Scholarships can be particularly useful in these situations, especially since these funds are often only available after the students have arrived. Duss also noted that other students, such as those from countries with socialized medicine, have been able to use their home country medical insurance to cover costs while in the United States.

Pitts relies on private charities and local churches as the main sources of support for her international students with disabilities when they encounter expensive barriers. “It’s a real problem for some international students to get diagnostics done to qualify for services. The health insurance that we have at the college for students with a visa will not cover testing for learning disabilities or other diagnostic testing."

Niyongabo, the student from Burundi who is attending Ohlone College in California, needed an audiogram to qualify for interpreter and captioning services for his courses. To cover the cost of his hearing test, a church at which Niyongabo volunteered his time, helped him to pay the expense. "The one problem I have had is it’s very expensive [to live in the United States]. If people are not wealthy, it’s very hard for them to move to this country unless you have a sponsor. I’ve had a sponsor, so it’s been great," says Niyongabo. Coming from a war-torn country that impacted his family's ability to support him, he was able to find a deaf priest to sponsor his study and can now work on campus through a student visa. "My experience here has been very positive. Deaf individuals have a lot of opportunity and chances to study and work. It’s a whole different world. Overall, it seems a lot simpler here and a lot less struggling and hardships."

The next article “Crossing Cultures –Disabilities Represented by International Students,” discusses accommodations and services for students with different types of disabilities and other ways disability and international student offices at community colleges can best prepare.