Accent's Scope

Despite their success in achieving happy travelers and good press, Accent's work did not seem to have any direct effect on policies between the U.S. and the nations that made up the Soviet Union. Of course, there may have been indirect effects of Accent's work, but ultimately their effort was mostly focused on exchanges in very specific geographic areas.

This said, Accent did not claim that their goal was to push legislation or even affect governmental relations in any specific manner -- instead, they seemed much more forward-looking, focusing on citizen relations and inter-cultural understanding even before the end of the Cold War.

Accent's participants clearly felt they were able to "touch the future through the children they [taught]", so using their impact on future generations as a scope for Accent's impact seems natural and in line with their stated vision/purpose. According to Nancy Holmes, a founding member of Accent, the children that participated in both the visiting and receiving ends of the exchanges came out better-equipped to contextualize their life in the world and their country's relation with other foreign entities. Of course, this perspective is subjective. As such, it is open to criticism, but the claim is also backed up by wholly-positive testimonials and reporting from the time of these exchanges.