Inaugural Meeting of AUCD's Migration & Disability Special Interest Group

AUCD is happy to announce that during this year's AUCD Conference: "Emerging Leader Shaping The Future."The network's newest special interest group(SIG), the Migration and Disability SIG, held its inaugural meeting on the afternoon of Tuesday, November 7th. Convened and chaired by Eva Weiss of Temple University, the group aims to address a gap in knowledge and expertise at the crossroads of migration and disability. There are a multitude of reasons why one might migrate to the United States; many seek an improved quality of life, more opportunities, medical care that is inaccessible in their home regions, or to rejoin with family members who've already migrated; others seek freedom from oppression, discrimination, violence, or disenfranchisement. But all make the journey to start a better life for themselves, their family, and kin.

In the case of our field, some choose to migrate to the United States to access disability knowledge and resources not available to them in their homeland. Across the country, our centers see and work with persons and families with varying migration statuses and communication requirements; as a domestic entity, it was realized that there was a gap in knowledge on how to best serve migrants in the I/DD community and their families. With the creation of the Migration and Disability SIG, the group hopes to provide resources and disseminate information to help demystify migration and disability and be a resource for centers working with disabled migrants. If this SIG interests you, follow the link to subscribe to the listserv.