Support Services for International Students with Disabilities
According to the United Nations, around 15% of the global population, or roughly 1 billion people, live with disabilities, making them the world’s largest minority – a minority that of course includes many students. In the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, the number of students with disabilities in higher education is low in proportion to their numbers in the overall population – but trending upward. According to the European Association for International Education (EAIE), such students can be reluctant to study abroad, worried that their particular support needs won’t be met at a host institution.
There are, however, transitional and support services that can help students with disabilities succeed abroad. To learn more, we caught up with Rob Crawford, the CEO of the Life Development Institute (LDI), and are pleased to present excerpts from our discussion in the videos below.
Offering internationally recognised and fully accredited high school, college, and career-focused programming in a residential setting, the LDI serves young adults with learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, Autism spectrum disorders, and similar conditions. The author of numerous books and articles, Mr Crawford has previously written for ICEF Monitor about working with students with disabilities.
