Self Advocacy and Adults with Learning Difficulties : Contexts and Debates

'For twenty years my son has come home and gone upstairs to play his tapes.

Yesterday he came back and said he wanted to go to the pub!' Many adults with learning difficulties will have been through experiences that have literally disempowered them as individuals, leaving them passive and reluctant to express an opinion or make choices.

This book is written for people working to support the development of self advocacy with people with learning difficulties in a range of settings and looks at some of the issues and dilemmas involved.

In a refreshingly clear style, the authors present the real life experience of people with learning difficulties who describe in their own words what self advocacy means to them.

Issues tackled include how to define self advocacy; the processes involved in individuals speaking up and in collective self advocacy; the role of facilitators and the dilemmas they have encountered; and how parents have reacted to the impact on their sons' and daughters' lives.

The final section presents these issues in a checklist format as a starting point for further action. The NIACE project on continuing education for adults with learning difficulties was set up in 1988 to record and promote good practice across agencies.

This is the second in a series of handbooks for practitioners, and follows on from "Integration for Adults with Learning Difficulties: Contexts and Debates" by Jeannie Sutcliffe (NIACE, 1992).