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On August 12 this year, I was invited by Mobility International & National Clearinghouse on Disability and Exchange (NCDE) for a guest speakership for 2021 cohort of the Access to Exchange Summer Institute (AESI).

This was the AESI first cohort so I felt really honored to speak to a young group of optimistic students who were visually challenged, mobility-challenged, deaf & signers, or autistic/ADHD. The diversity of their lived experiences was very much the focus. They all were curious to embark on an international study or intern experience outside of US.

As human rights professionals, we were asked to share and describe life for people with disabilities in our home country. We shared our community and international work to advance disability rights and advocacy in education & employment. My panel on Day 2 included disability & human rights advocates from Pakistan-to US (me), China-to-US, Congo-to-New Mexico, India-to-US.

Target audience: 18-30 yo students with disabilities planning their first academic exchange program from USA to other countries of the world. Students learnt about disability rights and culture around the world. They were challenged to think more broadly about the kinds of countries where a disabled person could go. They met a panel of human rights professionals with disabilities who described life for people with disabilities in their home country as well as their work to advance disability rights.

Some of the things I talked about were:

• Embracing my identity- its not easy when you are diganosed with a hearing loss by birth or live with a challenge that is non-mainstreamed. I explained how I spent my time in the hearing world, learnt to speak so I am verbal but hard of hearing.
• A country's laws determine how much disability-related accommodations you can expect to receive when you're traveling. Developed countries such as US, UK, Canada, Australia and Europe (in this order) have sound laws - it would be a cultural shock "disabilty-wise" to know that if you are visiting Pakistan, India, Bangladesh or Sri Lanka, you may not have caption service providers or written announcements at airports, bus stations. Here I told them how I use cabs so I don't have to make phone calls but there are other challenges to tackle each day.
• I was asked by one visually challenged student with ADHD: "When did I embrace my identity?" People often think that it was smooth-sailing for me. It never is for anyone. I struggled a lot with bullying in high school, and coming to terms with the fact that my life will never be linear. Fulbright exchange program definitely made me 200% more confident, more sure about myself - that I wanted to advocate and transform lives through amplying hidden voices.
• I agreed with others that Americans with Disability Act (ADA) has no subsitute in any parts of the world. As a law, it strives to protect and safeguard the rights of persons with disabilites (J1, F1 visa students are fully covered by this law too at zero cost to them if they need campus and classroom accommodations: Prospective and current international students to the US, this is for you!).
• We all shared a list of disability-friendly organizations in our home country should a student from the US wishes to study a semester or intern in our country. I mentioned about at least 2-4 non-profits, and also explained about the importance of establishing and maintaining a Point of Contact (POC) who has a strong understanding of the student's disability, their needs and assisting them with local traveling, housing accommodations, and emergency support, etc.

My panel included women who had truly embraced themselves but all had fought stereotypes, and battled societal challenges. For instance, the one in China described how it was a taboo to even say the word 'disability' in her Chinese households, and how prosthetic limbs were not allowed. She told us she gave a TED talk to speak how she fought her way to US, got a Star-wars prosthetic limb, and now pursuing a PhD from the University of Maryland as a World Bank consultant. The panelist from Congo was requested by her National Ministry to develop programs for women with disabilties in New Mexico. The minister was moved by her social media stories and invited her personally to move to NM and settle there. Her childhood and academics were entirely spent by her mother carrying her over many steps in the building all the way up, down and into the indigenous fields where they both worked. The one from India to US mentioned how people 'assumed' she does not have language skills because of her dwarfism (she prefers this term). Whenever she spoke up in conference or walk into office for tasks, people were shocked to see her 'speak'.

I talked about those few instances when employers thought that I am non-verbal and would need a sign language interpreter so they did not hire me for a position I fit in perfectly. I also shared how people who 'always ask and not assume' are one of the most professionally mature ones out there. I mentioned how in my day-to-day consultation with clients, my focus is inclusion - I am not afraid of sharing my life story, in fact, my story gives clients and students a hope that if I could do it with my hearing challenge (deaf by birth), they could do much better as well (its not a competition, nor thank God, I don't have disability, otherwise I dont know how would I have survived, this is ableist thinking: I am superior to people with disabilites because I don't have a disability so I'm better than others, I am able to access products so inaccessibility does not concern me.)

I am a huge proponent for study abroad - the experience you gain from living and studying (mostly) on your own from figuring out accommodations to navigating your academic, internships, employments, travels to social hangouts due to a disability or a challenge, to presenting in a big classroom cohort to networking successfully with professors to improving your inter-cultural comptency. You own your failures, you will feel frustrated when academics rigor reach their peak at end of semester but you emerge stronger than your pre-application self!

For the attendees of this summer access program in US, I hope all these stories from us were those of renewed hope for them. They did learn that embracing their identity takes time and that we must advocate to be each other's strong allies, and help them support in their quest to succeed and earn well in the academic and professional world respectively.

Travel and study abroad change you permanently for good! Be afraid of not taking that step when it could well be your life's best shot. (You miss 100% of the shots you dont' take, remember?)