Ebooks for the Classroom+Faculty

Becoming Self-Advocates : People with Intellectual Disability Seeking a Voice
ISBN: 9783035303438
Platform/Publisher: Ebook Central / Peter Lang AG International Academic Publishers
Digital rights: Users: Unlimited; Printing: Limited; Download: 7 Days at a Time
Subjects: Social Science;

People with intellectual disability cannot assume that they can speak up for and represent themselves. A host of socially constructed factors act as barriers to their becoming self-advocates. This book analyses the nature of these factors and investigates how the label 'intellectual disability' is understood and interpreted. It also analyses the power imbalance between people with intellectual disability and non-disabled people, an imbalance which leads to the perpetuation of dependence of the former on the latter. The book proposes self-advocacy as a way of providing an environment in which this power imbalance can be redressed, negative perceptions of the label 'intellectual disability' challenged, and independence and autonomy promoted. In this way, contexts can be created in which the voices of people with intellectual disability are heard and valued. Self-advocacy thus enables people with intellectual disability to become more active agents in their own lives with the necessary support.