[nabs-l] Question for Anyone Who Has Studied Abroad

[NCDE Clearinghouse]

Dear Vejas,

This is a great question. I am sure that you will receive a lot of 
useful experience from the students on this list, and we will just share 
our two cents based on our work on this topic and stories we’ve 
collected. Here’s our general tipsheet on using VR for international 
exchange: http://www.miusa.org/resource/tipsheet/vocrehab

Whether and how much support your vocational rehabilitation counselor 
offers you for your study abroad program will depend on your unique 
situation, whether or not you will receive course credit for your study 
abroad program, your reasonable accommodation needs, what you both agree 
on and whether or not you can demonstrate that it will advance your job 
skills.

Here are stories from a few of people who used VR for study abroad. 
Although the stories don’t go into detail about what it covered, you can 
see the variety of students and programs that were supported.
http://www.miusa.org/resource/story/xuan
http://www.miusa.org/resource/story/beth
http://www.miusa.org/resource/story/mallory

Vocational Rehabilitation paid for Xuan’s tuition, a plane ticket, and 
an hourly rate for her cousin to serve as her personal assistant for a 
five-week faculty-led study abroad program to London. Beth’s paid for 
tuition, housing, fees and books for a year abroad at a UK university. 
I’m not sure what Mallory’s costs were covered, but we met another 
student recently also in Arizona and she had tuition covered but not 
airfare.

Another low vision student from Nebraska years ago went to Eastern 
Europe (we no longer have her story online). Her VR counselor used 
Nebraska Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired (NCBVI) funds 
for her semester abroad, covering her tuition, books and supplies as had 
been done for the previous semesters. NCBVI also contributed 50% of the 
cost of a portable notetaker for her use with her research, e-mails to 
professors, data collection and writing assignments.

Check with your vocational rehabilitation counselor about the steps that 
they will expect you to take to request funding. Also if you receive SSI 
or SSDI then learn more about that too: 
http://www.miusa.org/resource/tipsheet/ssi

Finally, if you have not had the chance, I encourage you to take a look 
at our study abroad planning resources at www.MIUSA.org/plan.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us at 
clearinghouse at MIUSA.org in addition to this excellent listserv.

Sincerely


-- 
Justin Harford
Project Coordinator
National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange
Mobility International USA
Phone: 541-343-1284 extension 14
Email: jharford at miusa.org