Empowering Self-Advocacy: Youth With Disabilities Share Their Experiences and Perspectives

Self-advocacy includes both individual advocacy in the daily lives of disabled people and civic engagement to advance disability rights. Despite policies emphasizing the importance of self-advocacy, students with disabilities continue to have limited opportunities to develop and apply these skills in school and community settings. The individualized education program (IEP) and transition planning processes offer potential for student leadership and self-advocacy, yet participation remains limited due to persistent barriers. This study used semi-structured interviews with nine transition-aged students with disabilities to examine self-advocacy experiences across school, home, and community contexts. Guided by the Contextual-Behavioral Model of Empowerment, findings highlight factors that empower self-advocacy, such as self-awareness, goal setting, and supportive families and peers, and factors that disempower it, including limited IEP involvement, overreliance on family advocacy, and ableism. Although students reported little civic engagement, they offered recommendations to improve special education. Implications for research and practice are discussed.