The National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange is excited to implement the Campus Collaboration Initiative to promote collaboration between the fields of international education and disability services. The transformational experience of international exchange should be available to all those who are interested. Intentional and creative cooperation between international education and disability services can make all the difference in including people with disabilities. Many campuses collaborate well, and through this initiative we want to elevate their stories. We encourage other campuses to explore and implement new ways of working together. We invite colleges and universities to submit an idea for a project to increase collaboration or to share a best practice for supporting cross-campus collaboration between these fields. Selected campuses will receive up to $1,500 each.
What are the objectives of the initiative?
The goals of the Campus Collaboration initiative are to:
- Increase collaboration between the disability and international education sectors.
- Support the development of best practices on the ways that institutions of higher education can encourage teamwork between their disability, study abroad, international student services offices or student clubs to enable more students or faculty with disabilities to engage in international exchange.
What types of projects will we accept?
NCDE is open to a variety of project submissions including, but not limited to the following:
- Develop and disseminate informational material to enable disability professionals to understand international education or vice versa. Generate info on international education to disseminate to students with disabilities through the disability/international education offices.
- Organize a cross campus planning session to get to know each other’s work. Establish a strategy for working together.
- Support a staff to attend a conference focused on a topic outside of their area of expertise. For example an international educator may attend a disability conference, or a disability professional may attend an international education conference.
- Develop a new reasonable accommodation policy or share materials about accessibility on exchange programs.
Please note that the funding may not directly pay for student support such as scholarships or funding reasonable accommodations.
The Campus Collaboration Initiative is funded by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Application
We are now accepting applications.
Please submit your application before April 29, 2024.
Questions? Reach out to us at clearinghouse@miusa.org
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the goal of the Initiative?
The goal is to encourage communication between the fields of disability services and international education, and to disseminate best practices for facilitating collaboration between the two departments in a university setting to support disabled students to study abroad.
What does campus collaboration include?
Collaboration might include any of the following:
- Designing and implementing policies to provide reasonable accommodations for students studying abroad.
- Training colleagues in the other office on your Area of work including Exchange programs offered, disability basics, risk management or housing access.
- Disseminating the other office’s material to students a.k.a. Materials on study abroad programs in the disability center, or University policies for requesting reasonable accommodations in the international education center.
How much funding is offered?
Two campuses will receive 1500 dollars each to support their proposed initiatives.
When is the application due?
The application is due on April 29, 2024.
When will winners be announced?
The winners will be announced in the summer of 2024. We may reach out to applicants during the months leading up to the announcement of winners to request details of your proposal.
NCDE is a project of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, designed to increase the participation of people with disabilities in international exchange between the United States and other countries, and is supported in its implementation by Mobility International USA.
