Carla Abreu-Ellis and Jason Brent Ellis were awarded the Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad (GPS) grant, titled “Accessing Carioca Culture through the Lens of Disability.” 

The sponsored program, with a value of $67, 575, is provided by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of International and Foreign Language Education.

The Fulbright-Hays GPS will sponsor six undergraduate students within the College of Education or College of Arts and Sciences, two current school administrators and seven full-time teachers in the humanities and social sciences departments to travel to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in July of 2016 to study accessibility and inclusion within a Brazilian context. 

Abreu-Ellis and Ellis are reaching out to Ashland University students and alumni, neighboring districts such as Ontario, Wooster, Crestview and the city of Ashland, for those interested in the program. Ellis hopes the AU alumni will bring their professional development to the program and for students to learn and grow.

Carioca is someone who was born in the city of Rio de Janeiro, so you’re looking at the city through the perspective of disability.

Teachers and students will participate in seminars, field observations and compile research on accessibility. They will also observe and study how people with disabilities manage to live in a city like Rio de Janeiro.

The series of seminars on accessibility and inclusion will be provided by leading Brazilian theorists, professionals and practitioners. Participants will also visit tourist sites, such as Christ the Redeemer and the FIFA 2014 World Cup stadium Maracanã, to determine the accessibility and navigation of the facilities.

Abreu-Ellis and Ellis are hoping that students, as well as teachers, can apply what they will learn and observe to improve their own communities.

“Teachers can go back to their districts and see what they have learn either the good things or bad things, things that we do wrong in Brazil or we do right in the city of Rio and compared to what they are in their school districts in their towns, where they live,” said Abreu-Ellis. 

This project represents what Abreu-Ellis and Ellis have been trying to teach to their students over their years as educators. 

“The idea from a disability study came from a course work here which we try to simulate disability with our students and teach them what is like to live with a disability,” said Ellis.

Abreu-Ellis and Ellis have reached out to group of professionals in the area of disability and accessibility as well as people from the community to talk in the 16 different seminars. 

 “We have connections with professionals like teachers and other people who have made research in the area of disability and accessibility and also some people in the disability community,” said Ellis.

Students are going to have a unique experience with people who have a disability and have created or managed to made accommodations from themselves.

“We’re all about students coming first,” said Ellis. “So that’s why this was a very attractive grant for us to write because it really does denote accent on the individual in terms of everyone with a disability is an individual and they have their own individual experiences. Us as faculty and us as students, we hope to be able to understand that better and grow as individuals throughout the process.”

Ellis believes that this opportunity will help teachers and students to expand their perception and will have a very positive addition not only to their careers, but also as educators.

“I think that study abroad is important for everybody,” said Ellis. “If you really want to be a real culturally competent educator, to be a teacher that can understand or try to understand or empathize the experience of their own students when they come from other culture or they have a different language, I think is an important experience that you go through.” 

Students that fall within the requirements have been contacted about the Fulbright-Hays GPS opportunity, with over 30 responses, including alumni, showing interest in the program. Abreu-Ellis and Ellis will begin the interview process this fall, following two Portuguese courses and resulting with the final candidates that will travel to Rio de Janeiro in July 2016.