Winds of Change

ICI’s Renáta Tichá (third from left, wearing red-framed glasses) recently led a U.S. delegation to Cuba to understand more about the country’s special education system.

The Institute on Community Integration’s Renáta Tichá led a U.S. delegation of special educators, social workers, vocational rehabilitation specialists, and others to Havana, Cuba in November – in the midst of Hurricane Rafael – on a mission to understand more about the country’s special education system. Organized by the U.S. State Department’s Citizen Ambassador Program , the 13-member delegation met with officials from the Ministry of Education, University of Havana and non-governmental organizations, among other activities.

Tichá, who is co-director of ICI’s Global Resource Center on Inclusive Education, was invited to lead the delegation as part of her role as president of the International Association of Special Education.

The Institute’s global disability inclusion work has increased substantially in recent years, with projects in several countries, including Namibia, Zambia, the Czech Republic, Bhutan, Armenia, Malaysia, and Ukraine. Its dropout prevention/student engagement intervention model, Check & Connect, has been delivered in seven non-U.S. locations.

“Expanding our research and collaboration globally enriches our understanding, expands our knowledge base, and improves our work,” ICI director Amy Hewitt said.

Along with Sue Swenson, president of Inclusion International , and others, Tichá will speak on a December 7 panel, “Inclusion Around the World,” at the 2024 Tash Conference in New Orleans. And next spring, ICI will play host to a second international forum on employment, following a successful Dignity of Work forum in 2021.

As political winds change globally, it is important to understand how disability is perceived in different parts of the world, Tichá said.

Though recreational tourism to Cuba is still banned for U.S. citizens, educational visits are allowed. The group Tichá led was originally scheduled to tour a local school as part of the trip, but schools were closed due to the storm. Natural disasters and climate change – along with shifting winds in global politics – are critically important issues to study in the disability context, Tichá said. Severe trade sanctions, for example, could have serious implications for people with disabilities.

“Cuba ratified the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities but given the level of poverty and autocracy in the country, it’s enforced variably,” she said. “My goal for this exchange was to get a deeper understanding of the context around the country’s disability services system and how society views disability. They do not have the legacy of institutionalization that we do, for example, but people with disabilities there already face huge barriers to employment, so increasing poverty could likely be devastating for them.”

Disability issues can transcend political affiliations and there are disability champions everywhere, said Hewitt.

“Those champions will work together in the future to ensure people with disabilities have access to needed services,” she said.

Originally from the Czech Republic, Tichá said the trip revealed different ways to look at quality-of-life issues, as well as comparisons of Cuba today with the Czech Republic under communist rule prior to 1990.

“Given what’s happening in our own country with political regimes and change, it’s critical to understand what situations students with disabilities and their families will face under different political regimes,” she said. “There aren’t many countries left that are under communist regimes, but we shouldn’t pretend that part of the world doesn’t exist. I’m working with the other delegates from this trip to create presentations and at least one publication so that we are building awareness of what life is like for people with disabilities in Cuba.”

The group was struck, for example, by the sense of community displayed in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane.

“People were walking around helping each other, and the pedologic institute we visited was rallying to do what was necessary, without all the structures in place, because doing so is good for the country, and it’s all we have,” she said. “We saw a level of humanity that has almost been taken away from our services in the United States, which to some extent have become mechanized by our systems. On this trip, we saw people taking action because someone needed help right away. People were being cared for not by disability systems but by their neighborhoods.”

A similar phenomenon occurs in the disability services context, Hewitt said.

“In the United States, we take for granted the funding that supports services for people with disabilities,” she said. “There is much we can learn from other countries about communities supporting people, irrespective of funding. They find ways together to meet needs.”