Remember: Disability-focused programs are valuable, but only so long as participants with disabilities recognize that these programs are one option in addition to the full range of international exchange programs that your organization offers.
International Exchange Organizations
Organization: CIEE
Program: Summer Contemporary French Studies
Course: Cultural Approaches to Disability
Location: Paris, France
The Cultural Approaches to Disability summer course offered undergraduates the chance to explore disability studies in Paris, France. The course featured themes around the history of disability policies and militancy in France, the metaphors of “le handicap,” gender and race issues, representations in contemporary French cinema, and French approaches to particular disabilities and abilities. Students also had the chance to meet with French scholars and activists as guest speakers and visit local organizations and sites relevant to the course. The class was held in an accessible classroom at the University of Paris Diderot and students and stayed at the apartment-hotel Adagio Bercy, right across the Seine.
Organization: CIEE
Program: International Faculty Development Seminar
Course: Disability in Situation – French Notions of Disability and Difference
Location: Paris, France
Bringing together French scholars, university access professionals, and disability-rights activists to share their scholarship and experience in a collaborative setting with U.S. faculty, administrators, and activists, this seminar focused on facilitating conversations across diverse groups. This seminar also examined French disability policies with respect to European education and legislative systems.
Organization: Road Scholar, American Council of the Blind (ACB), Spanish National Organization for the Blind (ONCE)
Location: Madrid, Spain
Road Scholar, the American Council of the Blind (ACB) and ACB’s sister organization, the Spanish National Organization for the Blind (ONCE) partnered to offer unique international educational learning opportunities for adults who are blind or visually impaired. The exchange group journeyed to Madrid on a week-long program to discover the famed Spanish capital’s culture and history. Highlights included hands-on workshops, visiting the ONCE School for the Blind and exploring the Museo Tiflologico de la Once, home to scale models of national and international monuments, artwork by blind artists, and a display of instruments used by the blind for the past 200 years.
High School/Higher Education Institutions
Organization: Volunteers in Asia, Stanford University
Program: Asia-U.S. Service Learning (AUSL)
Location: United States
Community-minded Japanese, Taiwanese and Chinese students and Stanford University students were encouraged to apply for the AUSL program, in which students would learn about the impact of service work on issues related to health, disabilities and the environment. Through workshops at Stanford’s campus, a week-long service project in San Francisco, and a reflection session at the end of the program, participants learned about how non-profit organizations function and the spirit of volunteerism. Several students who participated in AUSL then participated in a week-long service project in Asia after the program.
Organization: University of Kansas Office of Study Abroad
Program: Peruvian Culture and Disability
Location: Peru
In partnership with Centro Ann Sullivan del Perú (CASP), the University of Kansas summer study abroad program in Peru aimed to give participants an international perspective on the social, educational, and non-governmental services available to Peruvian adults and children with various disabilities and their families in the coastal and mountain regions of Peru. The program invited students from any accredited US college or university with an interest in international mobility issues to visit public and private centers and schools serving children with special needs in Lima and Cusco as well as organizations and groups that serve adults with disabilities. Participants also attended presentations by renowned disability leaders and scholars on various aspects of independent living and disability in Peru.
Organization: University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Disability Resource Center
Program: Project Access
Location: Fiji, New Zealand, Australia, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, England
When the Disability Resource Center launched its inaugural study abroad trip to the South Pacific, it invited students registered with the office and their family members to join staff for disability accessibility and policy research in Fiji, New Zealand, and Australia, countries noted for their accessibility to people with disabilities. The following year, members of the Chattanooga community were also invited to participate in a two-week study of disability accessibility and policy, this time in Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England alongside those registered with OSD and UTC faculty.
Organization: Wright State University Center for International Education
Program: Ambassador Program to Switzerland
Location: Switzerland
For the first time, UCIE’s ambassador program, which arranges short-term education abroad programs during academic intersessions, tailored a unique trip specifically designed for students with disabilities who may have otherwise believed international travel to be beyond reach. During a summer program to Switzerland, students with diverse disabilities and students without disabilities earned credit by studying their host country in a classroom setting, received an introduction to local languages, including sign language, and took part in cultural immersion activities.
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Department of Human and Community Development (HCD)
Program: Inclusive Summer Study Abroad
Location: South Africa
Organized by a faculty member in the Department of Human and Community Development (HCD), the program brought together students from a number of disciplines, including psychology, family and children’s issues. Specific attention was devoted to recruiting students who use wheelchairs as well as students without disabilities. Students gained historical context for the trip in a pre-departure course. Then during the three-week trip, one week was devoted to tourism followed by two weeks of internships in the townships that matched each student’s interests or career tracks.
Organization: Wisconsin School for the Deaf
Program: Laurent Clerc Deaf Heritage Tour
Location: Paris, France
After completing a large group project on the history behind Laurent Clerc, students in a class at the Wisconsin School for the Deaf inquired about the chance to visit Laurent Clerc’s hometown and connect more directly to the history behind his involvement in bringing sign language to America. A teacher at the School for the Deaf worked to set up partnerships in France, and the students journeyed to Paris on a week-long program to meet with Deaf French leaders, learn French Sign Language, and visit sites like the Paris School for the Deaf and the Laurent Clerc Association.
