Is it true that people with disabilities get turned down from being accpeted into the Peace Corps?

Question

That's what I was told. I applied & they turned me down because they said you have to be in excellent physical & mental health, & I'm not good in either one.

Answer 1

You have to be mentally and physically capable of dealing with the very intense mental and physical challenges you will face in the field. That does NOT exclude someone with a physical disability, and someone has posted earlier here of their time in the PeaceCorps and knowing a fellow member who did have a physical impairment -- but he was physically and mentally capable of meeting all of the requirements.

Disabilities do not make a person not "fit". But you have said yourself that, indeed, you are not fit mentally and physically.

Your local volunteering and professional work should reflect your capabilities and your excellent physical and mental health. Do they?

Answer 2

Yes. You are proof.
I served with a cracker-jack math teacher whose legs didn't work, thanks to a bout of polio in his youth. They will take the handicapped.