The PIE: Could you tell us more about MIUSA and your work? 

Susan Sygall: I co-founded MIUSA in 1981 and its mission is to empower people with disabilities to achieve their human rights through international exchange and international development. Our tagline is advancing leadership and disability rights globally. I did a Rotary scholarship and went to Australia for a year in the 1970s. And while I was there, I realised that so few people with disabilities have the opportunity to do study abroad. So when I came back, I co-founded the organisation with the goal to increase the number of people with disabilities in all types of exchange – everything that non-disabled people were doing.

“I realised that so few people with disabilities have the opportunity to do study abroad”

In addition, we realised that people with disabilities around the world really needed to share their stories and strategies. So people with disabilities could also have the same rights in their own country. We’ve been also running our own exchanges focusing on leadership, disability rights, and disabled women’s rights. We have over 2,300 alumni from over 135 countries. It’s really been exciting to see the changes ensuring that disabled people have the same opportunities as non-disabled people in international development and international exchange.

I go to many international exchange and international education conferences, and there are very few people with an apparent disability who are in these careers. We have launched several initiatives to [appeal to] people with disabilities to think about having a career in international education.

The PIE: How much of an impact did your time in Australia make on your work? 

SS: Actually, the biggest issue for me [when I went in 1978] was how few people with disabilities there were. I was one of three disabled students at the university and the only international disabled student.

I had a fabulous time and did some wild, crazy things – hitchhiked in New Zealand for six weeks in my wheelchair and travelled in local buses through Asia and Malaysia. I was just doing what everybody else was doing. But it really was the catalyst to come back and realise that someone really needs to let the word out, that these are opportunities people with any type of disabilities should be doing.

“You always have to remember that there are disabled people in every country who are managing, no matter what the situation is”

I think in the last several years, things are changing. It’s not only important to have the same right to international exchange, but we also, realise if we want to change things globally, we really need to build a pipeline of leaders with disabilities. We know that people have to have a whole global competence to international change in international education. So now we’re seeing alumni from our program or people that have gone on other programs internationally, and they are now getting their rightful places as leaders and in governments and organisations and as change-makers around the world.

When we started I think there was a lot of convincing that people with disabilities should be included. There was a lot of hesitancy, and I don’t think people really got that this was a right. And I think now what we’re seeing more is people are starting at ‘yes, of course, we should do that’.

I have to say that now, in the international development field, where we’re doing training and consulting on inclusion, I think I’ve seen in the last two years a very big shift of people being much more proactive in putting resources to ensure disabled people are part of that.

You always have to remember that there are disabled people in every country who are managing, no matter what the situation is. Now, I think the whole disability rights movement is really gaining so much momentum. For me, it feels like there’s like a global family of people with disabilities and people who are allies around the world. So wherever you go, you can meet other people.

The PIE: Have you had quite a lot of support from the US government? 

SS: Definitely. The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has recognised for many years that disability is an important part of diversity and they’re very committed to diversity. I think the US has been a leader in really ensuring that people with disabilities are an integral part of all international exchange programs. I think there’s still a lot of work to be done. I think we can still do a lot better. But we do feel the support that that’s the direction that everybody’s on the same page.

The PIE: Do you assist both inbound and outbound students?

SS: It’s definitely both. We give free technical assistance through the National Clearinghouse on Disability Exchange (NCDE) project, which is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and administered by MIUSA.Our mandate is to increase the number of people with disabilities in international exchange who are from the US going abroad.

“When we started I think there was a lot of convincing that people with disabilities should be included”

But it also equally includes people with all types of disabilities who are interested in coming to the United States to volunteer, to teach, to research, to do professional exchanges, to work. We think it’s such a great opportunity for people with disabilities from other countries to come to the US because we have such great disability rights legislation. People know if they go to a high school or a university that by law, they will be accommodated, whether it’s getting sign language interpreters, accessible accommodations.

Equally, when disabled people from the US go abroad, we really encourage them to really go where they want to go based on their passion, their interests, what they want to study or what they want to learn.

The PIE: Following that passion is going to be more difficult in some countries than others, I imagine?

SS: Our motto is the challenge by choice. If you want to have a lot better accessibility, maybe you want Sweden and Denmark and England, but if you’re passionate to go to Africa, or is your passion to go somewhere in Asia, there are also ways of doing that. We have a lot of people who have gone to those countries with different types of disabilities.

But I think it’s really important not to pigeonhole people into where they should go. Sometimes people use preconceived notions of what they think is possible. We had a woman who worked with us and she is a quadriplegic and uses the power wheelchair. She wanted to be a Peace Corps volunteer. And, at that time, they weren’t sure how it was going to work. But she wound up working in rural areas in Paraguay, and, if she couldn’t use public transportation, she got some extra funding so she could take taxis. She had a very successful two years.

It’s very important to ensure that there is budgeting for inclusion. And what that means is making sure that the organisation has some funds available for reasonable accommodation. So, we know that if you’re going to study in Spain and you have a wheelchair and your wheelchair breaks down, then you need to get it fixed. Are you going to get some assistance with where to go if you need to get another wheelchair while your chair is being repaired?

I’m a paraplegic in a manual wheelchair, but when I went to study at the University of Australia the campus in Brisbane was very hilly. They rented a golf cart for me. And when I was a student at the University of California, Berkeley, I also had a golf cart because Berkeley was very hilly.

It might be a sign language interpreter for others. So there are many types of things. Some people don’t need any accommodation. And to me, that’s just a way of levelling the playing field so that everybody has the same opportunity. I think that’s important.

“To me, that’s just a way of levelling the playing field so that everybody has the same opportunity”

The PIE: Could you tell me a bit more about your time abroad?

SS: I wrote a memoir called ‘No Ordinary Days: A Journey of Activism, Globe Trotting and Unexpected Pleasures’ because I have lots of crazy travel stories. When I was in Australia, when students went to New Zealand for a break, they all hitchhiked. I did it for six weeks in my wheelchair. I never thought of not doing that.

At the end of our program, [my friend and I] thought, ‘before we go home, let’s have one other big adventure’. As people in our 20s, I didn’t exactly know what I was getting myself into.

We bought a ticket for local buses. We went to all of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, in the middle of the night to these tiny villages. And I just went  – as they would say in Australia – on my bum, up and down the steps. A lot of places, people would stare – they’d never seen someone in a wheelchair. I mean, it was many, many of those kinds of adventures. And again, that’s the type of travelling I like. I don’t like planning. I like unexpected things.