If a student would come to you with a disability, what would be the first thing you do?

When a student would come to the study abroad office and say they needed an accommodation because of a disability, we would discuss if he had disclosed the disability to Lynette Van Slyke in the Disability Resource and Services.  If the student had already disclosed, then we would immediately begin working with Lynette and the DRS and an advisor in the Study Abroad Office to help the student choose an appropriate program. 

If the student had not disclosed that he had a disability to DRS, we would discuss the issue and whether he was willing to disclose that he had a disability to our own advisors as well as a third party provider or other foreign university that the student was considering attending.  If the student says “Yes”, we immediately begin the process of choosing a program and I will go to Lynette to learn more about the student’s disability.  Its become apparent that there are such a large range of disabilities; you have them from dyslexia to blindness to deafness – the whole gamut has now come through our office.  From our education from Lynette to our staff, it has become much easier for us to work with every student.

Who is your primary point of contact when a student discloses a disability?

At the University of Pittsburgh , it became apparent that more and more students with disabilities, both visible and non-visible, were coming to the office with a desire to study abroad.  It also became apparent to those of us in the Study Abroad Office that we did not have the knowledge of all the disabilities that students were coming to us with. 

Therefore, we went to Lynette Van Slyke, who is the Director of the Disability Resource and Services Office at the University of Pittsburgh .  She became an integral part to our system of helping students with disabilities study abroad.  She initially set up an education program in our study abroad office to educate us on what it meant to have a disability, whether that disability was apparent or non-apparent. 

Over time, we felt that the staff in the Study Abroad Office needed to understand disability to the extreme.  One summer, we a wheelchair-bound student as an intern; the following summer we had an intern that was blind.  The education was not for the student, but for the staff to learn how to interact with students with disabilities.     

Are there any particular advantages to working with a third party provider as opposed to “going it alone,” so to speak?

I think there are definite advantages to working with a third party provider because in many cases, we have been on site and have seen what is offered to students in the country that they have chosen.  We know the people who are on site.  We can make a phone call.  The interaction is so much easier than if the student had chosen a university that we do not work with because in this way, if something happens, we would know who to contact.  Minute details can be worked out as a team of the student, DRS, and the SAO before a student goes on the program with someone we know and trust.  While the student holds primary responsibility for getting things done, because our office and DRS cannot do everything for the student.  It is imperative that the student has input into the program. 

If a student goes to Lynette and DRS first, what are that students steps to work with the Study Abroad Office?

If a student with a disability were to go to Lynette or one of her advisors in the DRS directly, they would call either myself or one of our advisors to come down to their office and meet with the student and Lynette.  We can bring up the positive as well as some of the negative aspects of studying abroad with that particular disability.  We believe that the honesty that the program is represented to the student is absolutely critical because there may be some parts of a program that certain students may not be able to do.  It is far better to put that out there, in the early stages, before the student has planned on doing a specific program.  Nine times out of ten, accommodations can be made, and students can have just as wonderful an experience as any other student would have. 

What do you do in the case that a student does not disclose, but we all expect them to have a disability?

Sometimes a student comes along that we suspect may have some sort of disability and they have not elected at any point in the process, which includes meetings with advisors, filling out questionnaires, program applications, or formal contract meetings, to identify their disability.  If a student does not choose to use any of the above means to identify their disability to either Study Abroad or DRS, our hands are pretty much tied.  However, in our experience, a student does not disclose and thinks they can go abroad and have the same experience as on their home campus, they are often wrong.  For example, if they are dyslexic and have not made arrangements for proper book transfer, they student will not thrive.  If a student has a psychological disorder and does not bring duplicate medications into the country, it most likely cannot be done.  The third party provider needs time to put into place those steps that would have made the experience wonderful.

What sort of length of time would you recommend for a student, particularly with a disability, to spend planning for their study abroad experience?

I think a student with a disability really needs to start planning a year in advance, depending on the disability and the part of the world they wish to study.  Those things need to be taken into consideration and can be very time consuming.

Why do you do this for students?

Our motto is “Study Abroad is for Everyone.”  At the University of Pittsburgh , we are truly allowed to take that motto and run with it.  To have students with color, to have students with disabilities, and to have GLBT students and every other type of students study abroad makes this one of the best jobs in the world.

Throughout this film, you have seen some of the most amazing students, many of whom never thought they could go abroad.  These students have realized that they can do whatever they set their mind to.  To those of us in the field, the most rewarding thing is to see a student go abroad that nobody thought could do it, to come back self-confident and proving to both themselves and others that they can do what they set their mind to, and know that we helped them attain this dream.  Matt, Tara, Greg, Kathleen, Brennan – they have all left a mark of this office that none of us will ever forget.

What have you learned from this project?

It has become clear to me that one person in a study abroad office does not send students abroad.  It is done by a team, working together to make it possible.  That is what it is to be a study abroad office.  We in the office are so blessed because we have each other, we have other offices in the university, and we have individuals in the university, we have the students who have gone abroad.  All of these components come together to make the Study Abroad Office at the University of Pittsburgh a truly wonderful place.