Self-Advocacy Education

By Eliza Young 

Students with learning disabilities in high school and college are not given sufficient resources for learning the basics of self-advocacy in an academic setting. While the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires schools to provide self-advocacy instruction as part of transition services, many students are not receiving support to learn this crucial skill. According to the Learning Disabilities Association of America (LDA), self-advocacy is “the act of representing yourself and your interests by speaking up for yourself. It means explaining your learning disability to others and telling them how you use your strengths and accommodations to succeed.” While self-advocacy is often described as a valuable skill for students, the nuts and bolts of how to acquire these skills are rarely discussed. 

Basic points such as: 

• Explaining your disability to someone else
• How to have a conversation with a teacher
• Writing an email to a teacher
• Setting up a meeting
• What accommodations should you receive
• What those accommodations will look like in the classroom

In high school, students need help figuring out how to step into a more active role in communicating with their teachers and addressing their needs. While this is a goal for many programs, they do not supply the necessary support. Teachers and administrators will often say that they want students to self-advocate but fail to understand how difficult it is for a student to do so. Many students find it intimidating to talk to a teacher for any reason, let alone about a topic as sensitive as disability accommodations. Explaining your disability comes with an inherent vulnerability, especially when explaining it to someone in a position of power. This also goes for college students, who can find it very difficult and anxiety-provoking to talk to a professor and single themselves out among hundreds of students. Nobody gives students training in how to self-advocate. So when an adult tells a student, “just go talk to the teacher and explain,” without teaching the necessary self-advocacy skills, it is like giving an algebra problem without any math instruction needed to solve it. 

Students with learning disabilities in college must navigate not only the new school setting and format but also an entirely different system for the accommodation and support they need. In college, students must self-disclose and advocate without support from parents, which often requires reaching out to professors and administrators themselves. 

College self-advocacy includes:

• Arranging for accommodations and documentation to carry over from high school
• Meeting with the college’s disability office
• Presenting yourself professionally and confidently in a one-on-one meeting
• Articulating your needs in the classroom
• Continually coordinating with professors throughout the semester
• Taking action if your accommodations are not honored

These skills can develop as a student gains experience with a learning disability. However, all these skills can be supported and explained to students with proper resources. Supplying students with the necessary resources for learning self-advocacy will allow them to be more successful and confident in their skills and understand their right to accommodations rather than letting them fend for themselves and learn through trial and error.

Issues Identified
A record number of students with disabilities were enrolled in public schools in 2024, and new data shows that nearly 7.5 million children ages 3 to 21 were served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act during the 2022-2023 school year, accounting for 15% of all students. That’s a jump from 7.3 million the year prior and represents the highest number ever,” according to an annual Department of Education report. By comparison, there were just 6.4 million students with disabilities during the 2012–2013 year, when 13% of schoolchildren were served under IDEA. (Heasley, 2024). Of the 7.5 million children under IDEA, 32.4% had a specific learning disability, the largest of all disability categories. 

The growing number of students with learning disabilities need help not only with academics but also with the other skills necessary to navigate school and life. One-third of students with LDs have been held back a grade, and students with LDs drop out of high school at nearly three times the rate of all students (Horowitz, 2017). Clearly, students with LDs have significant needs that are not being met by our current system, but self-advocacy skills can help.

Self-Advocacy Today: High schools are required by IDEA to provide transition services to students with disabilities, and self-advocacy is often said to be a part of these services. In practice, however, not many schools provide adequate self-advocacy training for all students with disabilities. Some curriculums exist, such as courses from the Zoro Institute for Transition and Self-Determination and the Monadnock Center for Successful Transitions, but it is difficult to know how widely they are used. In addition, these curriculums are designed for students in special education classrooms; students who spend most or all of their time in general education are unlikely to receive this instruction. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 67% of students with learning disabilities spent 80% or more of their time in general education classrooms in 2022. 

In my experience, I have never met someone with a learning disability who went to a public school and felt they received adequate training in self-advocacy. Some graduates of private schools specializing in learning disabilities have reported such instruction, but it seems rare to non-existent in public schools. Some students develop self-advocacy skills on their own or with the help of a parent or teacher, but many never acquire these skills. 

Self-Advocacy Challenges: Not having self-advocacy skills can significantly impact students, both in their academic careers and the rest of their lives. For example, if a student doesn’t understand the material or an assignment, they do not complete the homework; this hurts their grades and learning. They’ll see their classmates doing the work they don’t understand, hurting their confidence and making them feel dumb. If they don’t ask for help, they will fall further and further behind until they are so far behind it is complicated and overwhelming to catch up.  This can hurt their academic performance, mental health, and self-esteem. The lack of self-advocacy skills causes them to internalize the problem rather than try to find a solution. 

Speaking up when you have a problem and seeking help is something that even many adults struggle with, so we should not expect children and young adults to figure it out spontaneously. As educators, we know what good self-advocacy looks like and how successful students communicate with their teachers. Each kid should not have to reinvent the wheel while they are struggling. The wheel already exists. These are known skills for success that can be learned, and educators are responsible for teaching them to students. 

One of the most significant barriers to student self-advocacy is even identifying when help is needed. Nicole Greene, a special education teacher in New York who teaches self-advocacy skills, says, “Knowing when to self-advocate is just as important as knowing how.” Children and teenagers often struggle with executive functioning and metacognition since their prefrontal cortex is less developed than adults. This makes it harder for all young people to identify what the problem is. This can be extra challenging for students with learning disabilities and attention problems, who often lag behind their peers on these skills.

Greene created a T-chart to help students identify when they are struggling and how to ask for support. It includes pointers like when a student says or thinks, “I don’t get it.” The chart redirects them to say, “I am confused about this part. Can you explain it again?” This resource helps students identify when they should self-advocate and provides specific language if they don’t know what to say, a common fear among students.

Lack of Teacher Training: There are many reasons why self-advocacy instruction is lagging, including that it has only recently been identified as a problem. And while most teachers are not given adequate instruction on helping students with disabilities in general, training on explaining self-advocacy skills is almost nonexistent. Nicole Greene says, “There are lots of talented teachers out there who don’t know what self-advocacy means or what it looks like.” If even the teachers are unclear about self-advocacy, we cannot be surprised if the students don’t acquire these skills. 

Greene believes teachers should have more special education training—as part of preservice training for new teachers or teachers’ continued learning requirements— which would include information on teaching students self-advocacy. “It’s hard to know your blind spots,” she explains, “but mandatory free training could help address that. If all teachers learned more about self-advocacy skills as part of special education training, they would be able to teach these skills to their students. 

LDs in College: Learning disabilities persist for most people through high school, into college, and even beyond. Young adults with learning disabilities enroll at four-year colleges at half the rate of the general population, and their completion rate for any type of college is 41%, compared to 52% for all college students (Horowitz, 2017). I knew many students in college who qualified for accommodations but did not register for them. They often felt that the accommodation process was difficult and confusing, and talking to professors was awkward and fraught. The data seems to support these experiences. Significant numbers of students with learning disabilities forgo accommodations they qualify for. A 2016 study of 63,802 university students found that 5.96% reported having LDs, but only about a third of those students actually received accommodations in college (McGregor et al, 2016.) In other words, two-thirds of students are forgoing accommodations that could benefit them. 

Students who do receive accommodations report “less difficulty with assignments and more contact with faculty outside of the classroom than students with LD who did not have accommodations.” Presumably, less difficulty translates into less stress and greater success in college—brought about by self-advocacy. The study also explains, “Higher levels of informal contact with faculty can increase social integration at the university” (McGregor et al, 2016). 

Students with LDs are often isolated, but increased social integration is associated with higher persistence in pursuing a university degree. Research into school attrition has concluded that deciding whether or not to stay in college is directly related to a student’s social and academic integration into the school. Students who feel part of a community of peers and connect with professors on intellectual topics are likelier to remain in school (Tinto, 1993). Self-advocacy can give students the tools and confidence to engage with these communities and with their education.

Self-Advocacy for Life: Rather than being a “childhood problem” people grow out of, LDs impact people their whole lives, no matter their education level or age. Therefore, self-advocacy is a lifelong skill. Toby Tomlinson Baker, a California State University- Los Angeles professor, described, “Even as a Ph.D. scholar, I had to routinely request accommodations each semester and go out of my way to speak to my new professors about assignments. As a student with a learning disability and ADHD, self-advocacy is the reason I am so successful in school. As an adult with a Learning Disability and ADHD, I have often had to self-advocate in school settings, particularly in graduate school, as a Ph.D. scholar, to get the services I needed to succeed.” 

In her book The Traveling IEP, Baker identifies many of the difficulties with LD accommodations in college. She believes self-advocacy skills serve students throughout their academic careers.

What We Can Do
No one is born with the knowledge of how to best advocate for themselves. It is learned and, therefore, can be taught. Even introducing the idea of self-advocacy as a skill lets students know that these are learnable concepts that they can improve on rather than the mystifying and stressful expectations teachers have for them. And just like any skill, self-advocacy becomes easier with practice. However, in order to practice the skill, students need to understand the fundamentals. 

In college, I ran self-advocacy workshops every semester for incoming first-year years and anyone with a disability who wanted some help. We drew 10-15 people to most workshops, and I frequently received emails from students who could not attend but needed help with getting accommodations or talking to professors. Many of these students did not realize they could get accommodations in college until they saw the flier for our workshop. Attendees often said they appreciated the step-by-step guide we supplied; they felt more prepared after the workshop. This information, while anecdotal, demonstrates the unaddressed need for self-advocacy instruction. My workshop helped many students at my college, but students across the country need a wider solution. 

Although it would be ideal to have in-person self-advocacy classes at every high school and college, such a plan is not realistic. Instead, I suggest providing easily accessible, universal resources geared toward students. To most effectively reach students, the approach should look unintimidating, quick, and accessible. For example, pamphlets could explain self-advocacy basics and provide a video option available through a QR code. The pamphlets could be distributed through high schools and colleges. Social media accounts directed at students who talk about self-advocacy skills with tips and tricks could also help. These accounts could give helpful advice and also serve as a way for people to connect with a larger LD community.

Help for High Schools: IDEA already requires high schools to provide transition services, which include self-advocacy. However, there is little data on the implementation of these services, and there is no standardized curriculum or best practices for teaching these skills. States should set their own requirements for how self-advocacy services should be given, like requiring that students receive a certain amount of training on self-advocacy or providing curriculum guidelines. States should also require that students learn about the right to accommodations, what accommodations they are entitled to, and how to explain their accommodations to teachers. 

Raising awareness would also help. If administrators, parents, teachers, and students are more aware of how important self-advocacy skills are, they are more likely to be taught and included in an IEP plan. Awareness could be raised through social media, teacher training, information for administrators, and materials for high schools. 

I have not found many self-advocacy resources for teachers. Creating such resources would be very valuable. As Greene suggested, teaching self-advocacy could be part of each teacher’s education. States could use IDEA funding for this purpose. 

Preparing for High School: In addition, self-advocacy could easily be built into social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculums for general education students. A relevant lesson could describe how to identify when you have a problem, how to express it to your teachers and other adults, and how to brainstorm solutions. Special education students could get more in-depth education as part of their curriculums. They could also receive training on communicating their accommodations and needs to teachers. 

How the RISE Act Helps: The Respond, Innovate, Succeed, and Empower Act, or RISE Act, outlines how institutions of higher education should run their disability accommodations process. It requires institutions to adopt “transparent and explicit” policies for eligible documentation and provide it in an accessible format for students, parents, and faculty. It puts the burden on schools to inform students about their right to accommodations. The bill was introduced nationally several times, including in the 2023-24 Congress, and has been proposed in several states as well. 

Recently, a version of the RISE Act passed in Minnesota and could serve as a model for other states to follow. Passing the RISE Act would be a big step in the right direction to help students navigate the accommodations process and make it easier for them to self-advocate. Alongside information about accessing accommodations, colleges could also include hand-outs and resources about developing self-advocacy skills. 

Help in College: In college, students must self-disclose their disabilities, making it harder for schools to provide resources and accommodations. However, colleges and universities could do many things to help students through the accommodation process and develop self-advocacy skills. 

Colleges and universities could:

• Send a welcome email to incoming students explaining how to transfer accommodations. 
• Educate professors about how to help students with LDs, design accessible lessons, and welcome student self-advocacy. 
• Distribute how-to-self-advocate materials covering students’ rights, self-advocacy basics and mechanics, and further resources for help. Materials could include a QR code to a video and/or website with further resources.
• Offer self-advocacy workshops for students with disabilities, providing a safe space to ask questions and practice their skills. AHEAD (The Association on Higher Education And Disability) could distribute such resources to college disability offices. 
• Offer self-advocacy coaching as part of tutoring for struggling students. This could be peer-to-peer or professional tutoring.
• Create support groups for students with disabilities or those who are struggling with the accommodations process. This will allow students to get advice from their peers, promote a sense of community, and encourage success in college. 
• Provide training and resources for disability office professionals. AHEAD might be a good partner.

College disability offices could use resources about how to support students through the process of learning to self-advocate. Training for college disability professionals about how to facilitate student self-advocacy could explain how to assist and provide resources to students at different stages of developing self-advocacy skills. The Association on Higher Education And Disability, AHEAD, an association of disability professionals in higher education, could be an important partner in such an effort by providing resources on its website or workshops on teaching and supporting self-advocacy in students. The AHEAD website does have one existing resource for supporting self-advocacy through students’ transition to college and might be interested in expanding these offerings. After all, better student self-advocacy skills benefit the students and make life easier for disability offices.

Transitioning from High School to College: Many students do not have a lot of experience in self-advocating in high school because their parents had a much more significant role in their education in high school, and most received little self-advocacy instruction. As a result, many incoming college students rely on their parents’ support through college’s early stages while developing confidence. I have talked to many students who unfortunately reported feeling judged for needing their parents’ help or being required to register along with their campus’s disability office. Such experiences made them feel less confident and have more difficulty self-advocating. Self-advocacy is not learned overnight. Having adults/parents, professors, or disability office staff/support college students through learning the process can help ensure a smooth transition.

Of course, not all incoming students will have parents who can support them through this process, and may need help from other adults. These students may receive support from their high school special education teachers. Greene advises some graduating seniors that they can still email their former special education teachers while transitioning to college. While some teachers go above and beyond to support students after they graduate, not all do. This just underscores how important support for students is at every step of learning to self-advocate. Parents, teachers, school administrators, disability office staff, professors, peers, and others all play crucial roles that can change a student’s life, but only if we make people aware and provide resources on how to help. As Greene says, “The most important thing we can equip kids with is the sense of support and community, that your team is still here for you.”

Conclusion 
Self-advocacy is an important skill set for all students, but especially those with disabilities. Such skills boost confidence and are just as important as good studying skills in achieving academic success. As Tomlinson Baker puts it, “By self-advocating, we can change the factors that inhibit and restrict postsecondary students with disabilities. We can change the way professors teach, and most importantly, we can change the perception—the way the world sees postsecondary students with disabilities.” Students with disabilities deserve the same opportunities as other students; they just have different needs and require different tools. It benefits everyone to have students who have strong self-advocacy skills: the students, the teachers and professors, the administrators, and even future employers and society on a larger scale. Effective communication minimizes conflict and creates strong, productive, and confident members of society, allowing people with disabilities to reach their full potential.

* The National Center for Learning Disabilities provides a platform for its Young Adult Leadership Council members and alumni to share their experiences and perspectives. The views expressed in these pieces are their own and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of NCLD. These writings are intended to share personal insights and should not be cited as official positions or credible sources for policy or research purposes.