Self-Advocacy for People with Disabilities

Understanding the importance of self-advocacy is important for everyone, especially if you’re a person with a disability or a parent or family member of a person with a disability. Self-advocacy is the ability to speak up for yourself and your interests by expressing your thoughts and feelings. Self-advocacy empowers individuals to make decisions about their lives and express their opinion on issues that are important to them. No one understands what living with a disability is like better than the person living with one. By working on self-advocacy and encouraging independence, your family member with a disability will be able to express their needs and find solutions to challenges that you may have never been aware of before.

Woman wearing a jean shirt and holding a clipboard talking and smiling with a man in a navy blue polo shirt. Photo by Crush Rush.

Developing self-advocacy skills can happen at any age, but it’s best to start as early as you can. Whether you are a person with a disability or a person without a disability, self-advocacy is a skill you will use every day. Being able to express a specific need or accommodation with confidence will help your family member understand their own needs better and, in return, enable them to have their needs met.

Many disabilities are considered invisible disabilities, or disabilities that are not immediately apparent to others. For those with invisible disabilities, it is important to fully understand their disability and feel comfortable asking for support if needed. There are many ways to start teaching your loved one self-advocacy, such as practicing how to explain any accommodations they may need at work or school, letting them participate in making decisions that will affect them, and making sure they understand their rights. Practicing self-advocacy skills is a great way to develop independence and to feel in control of one’s own life.

In addition to being able to speak up for themselves, having goals and knowing how to accomplish them is necessary to truly be a self-advocate. Talk to your loved one about their future plans. Does your loved one want to go to college? What are their employment goals? What type of job would be fulfilling to them? When your loved one becomes employed, they will need to know how to ask their employer for any accommodations they may need or express any issues they're facing, and with self-advocacy skills, they will be able to do just that.

Visit our family page for more resources to learn more about how you can empower your loved one with a disability to meet their employment goals and reach their full potential.