Welcome back to our Self-Advocacy Series, where we are focusing on the application of self-advocacy and ways to work on self-advocacy skills in the classroom. 

In Part 1 we took a closer look at the concept of self-advocacy, and in Part 2 we are going to go over some examples of self-advocacy to show its relevance and importance in our day to day activities. 

One of the hardest parts about self-advocacy and building related skills can be trusting our own senses and perception when it comes to the things we need. 

That self-doubt can be pervasive, especially when we consider that it might apply to the process of figuring out what we are feeling, determining what we need, and actually going and asking for it. 

So let’s take a closer look at some of the areas where self-advocacy takes place, so that we can maintain an awareness of where some students might need to build their skills or be encouraged to trust themselves.

This is perhaps the most widely known and understood of self-advocacy, and for good reason. 

Not only is asking for accommodations in our own interest, the fight for fair accommodations has involved a considerable amount of advocacy work and any individual may find they need to push for an accommodation even if they are technically entitled to have it. 

At the core of this form of self-advocacy is knowing that we shouldn’t have to just “get by” when we are struggling if there is a viable solution available, and that just because not everyone faces the same challenges we do doesn’t make those challenges invalid.

If you are new to exploring the concept of self-advocacy, this might be an area that surprises you a little bit! 

After all, something like directly requesting or pushing to receive an accommodation contains a definitional act of advocacy. But part of representing one’s own best interests is determining exactly what those best interests are. 

Likewise, just as we might face resistance from people who don’t want to grant an accommodation, there will be people who insist that they understand your problem better than you and know your own needs better than you. 

For Autistic people whose needs might frequently fall outside Allistic norms, it can be all too easy to absorb the idea that their instincts about how they feel or what is affecting them are fundamentally wrong, and that they have to rely on the prognosis of others to understand what they need. 

Emphasizing this skill as something worth practicing and something intrinsic to all of us can make a big difference in trusting one’s own perceptions and instincts down the line.

This is another version of self-advocacy that may be surprising to some. After all our opinions are not necessarily related to a specific need and might not even be about ourselves! 

Yet our opinions, values, and beliefs are intrinsic to who we are as people. While there may indeed be cases where we decide we don’t need to share our opinion, the goal of building this skill is not to shout our beliefs every single time a new topic of discussion comes up. 

Rather, it is to identify our own beliefs as meaningful, know which are the highest priority to us, and to be able to share what we feel during those times when we feel it is important to do so.

While not exactly like sharing opinions, feelings are another facet of ourselves that we might seek to suppress because we have been told in the past that our feelings are invalid, or that we are overreacting, or that we should be feeling a different way entirely. 

Likewise, sometimes the nature or intensity of the way we are experiencing feelings might evoke a negative response even if the feeling itself is seen as valid. 

To be clear, having an emotional reaction does not excuse mistreating other people or violating boundaries. 

Outside of those important rules around boundaries, expressions that might be read as “odd” or “dramatic” are still a fundamental expression of who we are and expressing them in the face of how other people might react is advocating for oneself in a deeply human and vulnerable way.

We hope this quick rundown of ways in which we might practice self-advocacy has opened up your thought process on ways in which self-advocacy can be taught beyond asking for accommodations in specific settings. 

Next week we will talk a little more about teaching self-advocacy skills, but in the meantime if you want to share your experience with this topic, request we cover a particular topic in more depth, or offer a suggestion for another series then we would love to hear from you! Just drop us a line at hello@autismgrownup.com and we will be back next week with Part 3.