Self Advocacy
Tools to speak up for yourself, groups run by people with IDD, and plain guides to your rights.
Your voice, your choices
Self-advocacy means speaking up for yourself, knowing your rights, and making your own choices. The self-advocacy movement has a motto: Nothing about us without us. People with IDD should lead the decisions about their own lives.
- Say what you want and what you do not want.
- Ask questions until you understand.
- Choose who helps you.
- Join other self-advocates to change rules and laws.
Tools for speaking up
- Make a communication cardTell people how you communicate and what helps. Print it or save it.Make my card
- Write an accommodation letterAsk for changes at work, school, college, the doctor, or home.Write my letter
- Know your rightsPlain-language guides to the laws that protect you.Explore rights
- Rights by situationPick what is happening. See what you can do.Start
Groups run by self-advocates
IDD Atlas links to independent groups. We do not run, check, or watch these groups or their members.
Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE)
The national self-advocacy organization run by people with IDD. Find a self-advocacy group in your state.
Visit SABESelf Advocacy Resource and Technical Assistance Center (SARTAC)
Plain-language tools, trainings, and a directory of self-advocacy groups.
Visit SARTACGreen Mountain Self-Advocates
Easy-to-read guides on rights, voting, and relationships, made by self-advocates.
VisitAutistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN)
Run by and for autistic people. Plain-language policy guides and toolkits.
Visit ASANNational Resource Center for Supported Decision-Making
How to make your own choices with help from people you trust.
VisitSelf-advocacy groups near you
Search the Atlas for People First chapters and local self-advocacy groups.
Search near you
Learn more
Making your own decisions
Supported decision-making and other choices before guardianship.
ReadTurning 18
What changes when you become an adult.
ReadVoting
Your right to vote, and to bring someone to help.
Read