Thanks to her self-advocacy prior to and during her travels, the potential pitfalls Paula experienced while studying abroad were manageable. She points to two challenges in particular:

One was that her Lithuanian professors would provide a list of 15 books as suggested reading and pull information from those books for tests.

"It was impossible to do all of that reading, because I’m such a slow reader. It was difficult knowing what they expected."

Smiles spread on the Japanese storekeepers' faces as Jonathon, an obvious foreigner, asks them a question in their language. Jonathon, a University of Iowa graduate student who is spending a semester abroad, loves this interaction with the locals, both for absorbing the culture and practicing his Japanese language skills.

If you attend conferences or host events related either to the disability community or study abroad field, why not bring the topic of people with disabilities going abroad into the fore? Let us get you started with Powerpoint slides ready to insert into your next presentation.

The slides cover:

Find out which organizations have recruited the most participants with disabilities to the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study program!

Did you know that between 2007-2016, nearly half of all students with disabilities selected for the YES program have been Deaf? Or that almost 60% of FLEX students with disabilities have a physical disability?

Students with a physical disability, such as Cerebral Palsy and Short Stature, make up 40% of the more than 250 students with disabilities who have participated in the FLEX and YES programs since 2007. Blind and low vision students make up the next largest category of students with disabilities.

More than a dozen youth exchange organizations place FLEX and YES students with and without disabilities in U.S. host communities each year. Those that have placed the most students with disabilities? AFS USA, Program of Academic Exchange (PAX) and ASSE!

Find infographics about the percentage of students with disabilities placed at specialized vs. mainstream schools.

Which U.S. states have hosted the most students with disabilities? If you guessed states in the Midwest and Upper Midwest, you're right! Altogether, students with disabilities have been hosted in 43 U.S. states and the District of Columbia over the last ten years.