Yevgeniy Tetyukhin

Yevgeniy Tetyukhin’s work on disability started when Kazakhstan gained its independence 22 years ago. Before that time, people with disabilities were considered invisible by the Soviet Power, though there were millions of them. Tetyukhin was one of them, contracting polio at the age of three. Nevertheless, Tetyukhin earned his Ph.D. and later earned his university professorship. He is an international wheelchair racer and a two-time paralympian (Sydney and Athens), having founded North Kazakhstan Club for Disable Sports and North Kazakhstan Association of Disable Sports. He has carried his inspiration outside the sporting arena by teaching disability as a part of diversity and multiculturalism within the framework of the subject “American Studies at North Kazakhstan State University.” In 2013, Tetyukhin served as a Fulbright scholar at the Center of Disability Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Upon his return to Kazakhstan, he started a Support Center for students with disabilities. To that end, he is teaching people with disabilities to not only become self-advocates, but also to develop leadership qualities.