11 April 2008
Disability Issues and Foreign Affairs
While the Department of State's primary mission is the conduct of U.S. foreign policy, it also is involved in disability issues. In addition to the normal concerns about accommodating the needs of employees and their families, who are assigned throughout the world, American embassies and consulates provide services to U.S. citizens living or traveling in host countries. A consular office in France, for example, was asked by an American deaf woman to help explain the role of a service dog to local officials, who were familiar with dogs for the blind but were unfamiliar with a dog serving a hearing-impaired owner.
The State Department also sponsors cultural and educational programs dealing with the subject of disability. A number of programs and exchanges reach out to students with disabilities, including two that send U.S. teachers or student interns to work with programs for the deaf in other countries. Other programs may not focus exclusively on audiences with disabilities, but may have some connection with special needs audiences. World Cup athletes recently visited several countries and met with many groups, including deaf footballers from Bahrain's Disabled Sports Federation—a program that resulted in extensive local press interest in Bahrain and promises to lead to follow-up activities.
Another State Department office recruits and sends U.S. citizens as experts to conduct programs around the world. These programs sometimes involve unusual requirements, such as the need to send along a sign language interpreter when a hearing-impaired disability expert traveled to do programs in Shanghai or the special arrangements needed when a blind speaker visited India with her seeing-eye dog. In the United States, it is not uncommon to see service dogs working with blind, deaf, or otherwise disabled people, and "therapy" dogs even visit hospitals and nursing homes to help calm patients (research shows that the presence of these dogs improves blood pressure and pain tolerance and helps reduce depression). Making arrangements for people and their service animals to visit other countries where the regulations and cultures are different, however, presents special challenges for program organizers. But it is well worth the extra effort, when the result is not only that the department's human emissaries have the support needed to do their work in another country, but, as in the case in India, the speaker's dog became a bit of a media sensation herself, introducing a large segment of the population to a new concept.
To read an article about the experiences of Joyce Kane and her dog during their programs in India, go to http://usinfo.state.gov/scv/Archive/2005/Jul/18-456527.html.
To learn more about international programs for the deaf, visit Global Deaf Connection at http://www.deafconnection.org and The International Deaf Partnerships Project at http://academic.gallaudet.edu/courses/spa/CREPBerw.nsf.
