John: Self-Advocacy Topics and Tips, Part One

We used “the D word” a lot in one of my classes recently. No, not that one. For those teaching high school students with disabilities, the D word is “disability.” It’s one of those words that your students don’t like to hear. Recently, my district implemented a self-advocacy and disability awareness initiative. Part of the program was a survey given to students and parents to assess how much information stakeholders knew about a student’s disability. Surprisingly, the survey revealed that both students and parents knew very little about a student’s disability. Some parents even angrily denied having a student with a disability.

The results from this survey drive our self-advocacy program in the district. I am a strong believer in educating students with disabilities about how a disability affects them, what accommodations they can use to overcome deficits, and setting goals to improve weak areas.

In order to teach self-advocacy effectively, you must believe in it whole-heartedly because you will face opposition from students. I want to share what I think are some of the most important topics to cover in self-advocacy and what I have learned that you might be able to use when you teach self-advocacy to your students.

1. What is my disability?
In my first self-advocacy lesson, I break the news to my students that they have a disability. For many of my students, this lesson may be the first time they realize that they have a disability. Students might have trouble accepting this fact if this is the first time a student has been told he or she has a disability. I explain to them what having a disability means. Disability does not equal dumb or slow.

However, I do not sugar-coat a disability. I know some teachers who will soften the impact of having a disability by saying that everyone has a disability and that nothing is different about these students. While everyone has a weakness, not everyone has a documented disability. If a student thinks that everyone has a disability and his weaknesses are no different from any other weaknesses, he may be less likely to identify as someone with a documented disability and fail to capitalize on the rights and resources available for students with disabilities.

After telling students they have a disability, we focus on what a student’s specific disability is (i.e. specific learning disability, other health impairment, emotional disability, or intellectual disability—I refuse to call them “educably mentally disabled/handicapped” even though that is what the IEP says.). This might not sound like a lot of information to cover in one lesson, but I find that this information is about all my students can handle for one lesson.

2. What are accommodations?
I teach an accommodations lesson fairly early in the semester because the students will need to know what accommodations they have available during the semester to succeed in their classes. I start with very obvious disabilities and accommodations because it is easy for my students to understand these examples. By seeing the need for a person in a wheel chair to have access to an elevator, they can understand why they might need extra time on an assignment or oral administration of a test.

3.How does my disability affect me?
As the semester progresses and students become more aware that they have a disability, I ask them to reflect on how a disability may affect them (another example of using the daily journal). Journals, surveys, and inventories help the students reflect on how a disability affects them. Being aware of a disability is a first step in being able to overcome one.

4. What are rights for a person with a disability?
One important thing I want students to know when they leave my class is the rights they have as a student with a disability, but more importantly, as a person with a disability. The self-advocacy program in my district is focused on getting students to participate in IEP meetings. Currently, each student attends his or her IEP meeting, many contribute to the IEP, and a few write major portions of the IEP.

However, in my class I feel it is more important to focus on self-advocacy skills that the students will use long after high school. Because I teach employment training, I focus on rights for people with disabilities related to employment. We talk about questions that you should not answer in an interview or on an application, as well as discrimination and harassment in the workplace, and what a reasonable accommodation is in the workplace setting. Many other rights related to employment are important for my students to know.

What experience do you have teaching self-advocacy skills? Were you surprised by how little students and parents knew about a disability?

Comments

[John]

@Kat thanks for the comment. I would encourage you to do some research on elementary students leading their IEP meeting. My district started an initiative a couple years ago and now all students, even at the elementary level, prepare a PowerPoint to show at their IEP meeting. Parents love it, and it fascilitates student understanding of their disability. I'm not aware of any laws or policies regarding talking to students about their disability, but there is lots of information out there for you to consider. You can also read Part Two of this post for some tips and information I learned in teaching self-advocacy.

[Kat]

I find it interesting that you are working in a high school setting and this will be the first time some students hear or start to understand that they have a disability. This makes me wonder how I will address this topic to my future students. I have just started student teaching in a self-contained 4th grade classroom. It never occurred to me that they would not have been told about their disability by 4th grade let alone high school. I know that the students I am student teaching with know that they are different because they are always nervous and excited to go into the general ed classrooms. Now that I read your post, I wonder what they think about their separation from the general ed students, or what they know about their disability. I have one student who was in general education until last year (that’s another story for another time) what does he think about that? This post also makes me wonder what I am allowed to talk to the students about when it comes to their disability. Are their procedures, ways to, and not to talk about it. I absolutely agree with teaching self-advocacy, and as others have commented earlier, it should probably start earlier. Are there policies in the law to think about? Thanks for bringing this idea to my attention.

[Liz]

John,
I am so excited to see that your school is implementing this program. I was in a school recently doing a field experience and they refused to tell the students that they had a disability and even refused to call it special education because they were worried that the students would separate themselves more from their peers. I feel that this is not the correct way to handle this situation and it will just make the students feel more alienated than if we just explained to them that their brain works differently and that they may need to work a little harder than the other kids.

[Emma]

John,
I think that teaching self - advocacy should be done with every student in every school. I also believe it should start young. At least with teaching them about their disability and how it affects them. I'm currently student teaching at an elementary school and am surprised still at how many parents of 4th graders still refuse to acknowledge that their child has a disability, especially those that were present at birth. I agree that teaching your student that not everyone has a disability is a good thing, but also teaching them that they shouldn't be ashamed of it. I think that helping your students take pride in themselves is important and the only way they can do that is if they know both their strengths, weaknesses, and disabilities. Students shouldn't be ashamed to ask for help and receive that help, especially when they need it to succeed.

[Kayla]

John,
I love the idea of teaching self-advocacy. It is so important for students to understand their disability and what they can do to help themselves. Teaching self-advocacy is especially important for middle school and high school students who will soon take on more responsibility for themselves, their education, their needs, and their lives. I also love that you include teaching students what their rights are. They should know what rights they have as a person with a disability. Including them in their IEP is a fantastic way to begin that learning process. The more involved they are with their IEP and education, the more their educational experience can be geared toward what they need, as well as, incorporate and celebrate their strengths. Thank you for sharing your ideas with us!

[Brittany Jenkins]

This blog was very helpful. John I am going to apply something similar to your accommodations lesson to the beginning of my first two weeks lesson plan. I teach in a 3rd grade inclusion classroom and we try to make sure students do not realize they are different. I like your approach of the lesson so students won't say why do you read the test to them, or why do they get more time. I’m sure your method will work with third graders as well. Thanks for the idea.

[Brooke]

John, I think it's important to inform your students about disabilities and to help them understand which disabilities they have and how they can be a part of the IEP process. It's also nice that you teach job skills and are aware of what comes after high school so the students can be better prepared for work as well. It is surprising that the parents and students knew so little about the disability. I would think that as a parent, I would want to know as much as I could about the disability my child has but I guess everyone is different. I know I have worked with parents who researched autism so much that they found a doctor who said he could cure autism. Then there are some parents who won't even believe their child has a disability. Two opposite ends of the spectrum and neither are ideal but both are encountered. I hope that the students benefit from learning about their disabilities and that their parents are involved in that process.

[John]

Also for those of you that asked about specific ways that I teach, Part Two will have my suggestions for how to actually go about teaching the skills. Part Two is posting next week.

[John]

@Brenna you are right that for some students it is more difficult to get them to understand the whole disability thing. Students at my school with intellectual disabilities still participate in the same self-advocacy program, but it looks different. They can tell what their weaknesses and strengths are, likes/dislikes, what they do for fun, etc. It is hard, but it can be done.

As far as parents go, see my comment to Natalie about how our parents have responded to the program. If done the right way, I think the parents can really buy into it.

[John]

@Laura you are right that the students don't embrace talking about having a disability. Our district has started this program district-wide and what we have found is that students who have had the program started at a younger age are more accepting of it as they get older. Telling a junior in high school that he has a disability for the first time doesn't go over well, but if he has been hearing it and working on ways to overcome it since first grade, it isn't quite as shocking.

To answer your question, I work with the whole class to tell them they have a disability and definitions of disability, weaknesses, strengths, and accommodations. Then one-on-one I go threw IEPs and talk about specific disability labels. Working one-on-one emphasizes the confidentiality of disabilities that I emphasize in the work place since I teach job skills.

[John]

@Natalie I know that many teachers (some in my school included) will tell students that a disability is just a weakness like any other weakness, but in my opinion I want students to identify as a person with a disability. When I talk about disability discrimination in the workplace or benefits offered to those with disabilities, I want them to hear "disability" and think, "Oh that's me." I don't want them to hear "disability" and think that applies only to students lower than they are or that it applies to everyone who has any weakness.

You are right that not many students like the program, but the parents LOVE it. Many of them have been going to IEP meetings for a dozen years and have heard year after year about what they canNOT do. Part of the program is having students lead the annual IEP meetings. Many parents cried or had tears in their eyes as they listened to students talk about not only weaknesses and what they were doing to overcome them, but also what they were good at and want to do after high school. It's really cool when it works well.

[Brenna]

John, I really like the idea of having a self-advocacy course for your students. Right now I am student teaching at a middle school with students who have cognitive disabilities. I am imagining myself teaching self-advocacy to these students and am unsure of how I would go about it or even if my students would understand it. I know for a fact that one of the 7th grade students, who has autism, is not aware that he is "different" from the majority of other students in his grade. How can you go about telling a student that he or she has a disability? Especially when parents are not on board with the whole documented disability thing. I do, however, think that a self-advocacy course is a great idea, especially for high school students that are getting ready to move on and start a new chapter in their lives. I also think it would be a good idea to teach disability awareness to all students so that when students with disabilities are better understood and accepted into the school community by their peers.

[Laura]

I am currently student teaching in a high school and self-advocacy is something we try to incorporate into every lesson everyday for our students. Most of the students on our caseload throughout their 4 years in the high school are able to take a self-advocacy class taught by the half time special education teacher, half time transition coordinator. I have not had a chance to observe in this classroom to see what the class all entails, but I have worked with students who are taking the class and have been able to talk to them about it. The teacher provides the students with many opportunities to become a better self-advocate for themselves to ensure they receive what they need to to be successful.

My co-operating teacher informed me the first week of school this year that at some point throughout the year, she talks to the students about their disabilities formally. All of our students are high functioning and are aware that they are in a special education class because of their learning differences. The students sometimes get down about it, but we always say that we like them for who they are and their disability has made them who they are today. However, besides the juniors and seniors on our caseload, we have not had a formal talk with the students about their disabilities. I wanted to be at my placement site for this, but I don’t think we will get to the unit before I move onto my next placement. When my co-operating teacher told me about the formal lesson on disabilities, I was wondering how it would pan out. I feel that it would be very difficult to talk to the students as a group about each other’s disabilities. Do you teach each student about their disabilities in a group setting or one on one?

[Natalie]

I think it was interesting that you informed the students that they have a disability and it goes beyond a weakness. I feel that some students would really struggle with hearing that state in such a way and parents might not like that their child is told like that. I do agree though, with self advocacy. If a student can embrace their disability and find ways that they can be helped in the every day world, that is fantastic. I think it is important for people to take accountability and responsibility. I am not surprised how little students and teachers know about disabilities. I think there is a constant lack of knowledge about topics and if they just get out there and learn some ways that they can be assisted, it will increase awareness and more people will benefit from the opportunities available.
Natalie