August 23rd, 2014 by Rachel | Tags: Peace Corps | No Comments »
Just a few days prior to finally receiving an invitation to serve in the Peace Corps this past April, I wrote a letter to my congressman, Joe Kennedy III, who is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer and great-nephew of John F. Kennedy, asking for assistance in reaching out to Peace Corps to create a more fair application process for people with disabilities. I will allow the letter to speak for itself to help you understand why I wrote a letter to him:
Dear Representative Kennedy,
I am contacting you not only because you represent my district but also because you were a Peace Corps volunteer. Five years ago, I applied to join in the Peace Corp. While I was nominated, the medical office denied me because of my disability. I have Usher Syndrome, a condition that causes hearing loss and gradual loss of vision. I am able to hear almost like a person who hears normally thanks to a cochlear implant, a surgically implanted technology that allows deaf people to hear. When the medical office told me that they could not allow me to serve in Peace Corps, they questioned me how I can communicate and learn a foreign language. In the application, I had clearly stated that not only I communicate with ease through hearing and speaking like anyone else, I also have successfully learned to speak French fluently and conversational Spanish. To help you understand how good my hearing is, I can hold conversations with ease on the phone and watch television without closed captions. My vision is very stable, and I have been told by my retinal specialist that I will still have usable vision until at least 80 years old. I have several years of experiences in living abroad including in developing countries, and therefore, I know that my disability should not pose any issues while living abroad.
Because joining in the Peace Corps is my lifelong dream, I decided to reapply over one year ago. I submitted the application in March 2013. I was successfully nominated again this past May with an estimated departure date of early 2014. However, the medical screening process took so long. By beginning of December, I still have heard nothing from the medical office about their decision to give me a pre-clearance. When I attended a Peace Corps event in Cambridge this past beginning of December, I met several people who applied after I submitted my application and already received their invitations. I felt extremely hurt and that it was unfair that I have to wait longer simply because I have a disability. I finally received a medical pre-clearance in mid-December. I was extremely grateful that the medical office decided this time that I can serve. However, shortly after hearing the news about the medical pre-clearance, I learned that my estimated departure date would be pushed back to September because all spots have been filled for winter and spring departure dates.
I currently follow a Peace Corps group on Facebook, and I have been reading that many people are already receiving invitations to leave in September. Most of the people who are already receiving their invitations submitted their application much later than I did. As of today, I still have not yet been informed if I will be invited or not. I have already asked Peace Corps for an update on my application process. While I did receive a response, they told me that they did not have any updates for me. I understand that being patient is an extremely important asset to have during the application process; however, it is extremely unfair for someone with a disability to wait longer than everyone else.
Would you be able to assist in inquiring the Peace Corps office about my application process and finding out if they will inform me soon about whether or not they would invite me? Moreover, I hear that it is very common for people with disabilities to wait much longer than most applicants to hear from Peace Corps about whether or not they would receive an invitation to serve. Would you be able to advocate in making the time of the application process for people with disabilities to be the same as people without disabilities? I understand that one of Peace Corps’ goal is to have a diverse group of volunteers. If every person’s application process was treated equally, Peace Corps could see a more diverse community of volunteers.
Sincerely,
Rachel Chaikof
I do realize that Peace Corps has very recently changed the application process and one of the changes include shorter wait times. I wonder if the new application process will make any difference for people with disabilities.
