Promoting Advocacy and Empowerment for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities and Autism

Throughout time, advocacy has been needed to ensure individuals with disabilities and their families demonstrate positive outcomes. Specifically, advocacy has been conducted by parents of individuals with intellectual disabilities, including those with autism, as well as self-advocates. With the COVID-19 pandemic, parent advocacy and self-advocacy became even more critical. However, there are concerns about how to balance parent advocacy and self-advocacy, especially in cases where the goals of such advocacy efforts are different. We suggest using person-family interdependent planning to unite parent advocacy and self-advocacy to ensure positive outcomes for individuals with intellectual disability, including individuals with autism, and their families.