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Self-Determination and Advocacy

Self-Determination and Career Development: Enhancing the Post-School Success of Youth with Disabilities

Margo Izzo, Ph.D.Ohio State University

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Understanding Self-Determination (SD)SD is a combination of skills, knowledge, and beliefs that enables a person to engage in goal-directed behavior.

It includes:• Self-awareness• Self-advocacy• Self-efficacy• Decision-making• Independent

performance• Self-evaluation• Adjustment

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Understanding Career Development (CD)CD is the coordination of school, family, and community resources to foster a person’s potential for economic, social, and personal fulfillment.

It includes: • Career awareness• Career exploration• Career decision-

making• Career preparation• Career placement

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The Nature of the Problem• Self-determination (SD) and career

development (CD) skills are often not cultivated at the secondary level because of limited opportunities to make self-directed choices and explore careers.

• Students must understand their own interests and abilities prior to entering postsecondary and employment settings to be self-determined .

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Finding #1: The Need to Integrate SD into Learning• SD can be taught through credit-bearing

classes and integrated into the general curricula.

• Equipping students with knowledge of their disability improves their ability to self-advocate, which is a major component of SD.

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Finding #2: Current IEP Process Does Not Promote the Development of SD

• Only 22% of teachers reported that all of their students had SD skills included in their Individualized Education Plan (IEP).

• 31% of teachers reported that no SD skills were included in their students’ IEP.

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Finding #3: The Impact of Career-Oriented High Schools• Research suggests that career-oriented

high schools have a positive impact on students’ SD and career planning, as evidenced by increased motivation, persistence, and decision-making among students enrolled in these schools.

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Finding #4: The Relationship Between SD and CD• Sufficient evidence exists to suggest that

programs that teach career development and self-determination skills in context of self-directed, work-based learning experiences have improved employment outcomes.

• Work-based learning can result in better school performance, increased motivation to learn, and the opportunity to develop and refine career interests and make job contacts.

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Study Males Females

N Percent N Percent

National Longitudinal Transition Study* (1991)

Youth with disabilities 1941 53% 1005 30%

Youth without disabilities Comparison Population**

6325 65% 2597 48%

General Population 6325 68% 2597 54%

Great Oaks (1991-94)***

Experimental Group 29 68% 14 58%

Control Group 20 50% 13 38%

Oregon/Nevada Follow-up (1991)****

Youth with disabilities 275 71% 147 40%

Youth without disabilities 68 65% 63 60%

Comparison of Employment Outcomes Across Comparable Transition Studies

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Finding #5: The Need for Follow-Up Supports• School and agency personnel who pool

funds and resources and deliver follow-up services gain improved employment outcomes.

• Students who receive extended transition services are significantly more likely to be employed or in a training program than those without extended transition supports.

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Implications

• Involve students in a coordinated assessment and planning process so that students can gain knowledge of their strengths, needs, and related accommodations, such as assistive technology (AT) supports.

• Facilitate student-centered IEP meetings and self-directed learning models.

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Implications

• Infuse SD and CD into the curricula and offer work-based learning experiences for all students.

• Integrate training on SD and CD into teacher pre-service and in-service trainings, as well as trainings for disability service providers, parents, and other members of the community.

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Implications

• Extend transition services beyond high school graduation.

• Develop collaborative relationships among school and agency personnel that use follow-up data from a coordinated management information system to improve services and outcomes.

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Self-Determination and Advocacy

Self-Advocacy for Youth with Disabilities

Megan A. Jones, Ph.D.University of Hawaii at Manoa

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Definition of Self-Advocacy

Ability to • Assertively state wants, needs and

rights• Determine and pursue needed supports• Conduct ones own affaires

(Martin and Huber-Marshall, 1995)

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Finding

Individuals with disabilities in postsecondary school and employment are required to be self-advocates for their assistance needs.

Youth with disabilities are often not given the opportunity within secondary school to learn and practice self-advocacy skills.

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Finding

Students with disabilities will seek accommodations but are often reluctant to fully utilize them.

Students are concerned that they are singled out from other students, faculty do not believe they are qualified for college, and they do not know how to advocate for their needs.

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Implication

Youth with disabilities in secondary school should be required to actively participate in the IEP planning process with a focus on

• Articulating the nature of their disability

• Understanding how their disability relates to their assistance needs

• Learning and practicing skills needed in the post-school environment

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Finding

Students with disabilities in postsecondary education say that “other people’s attitudes” are one of the most significant barriers that they face.

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Implication

Efforts to increase the self-determination skills of youth with disabilities must be coupled with educating others about valuing and respecting individuals with disabilities.

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Self-Determination and Advocacy

Self-Determination andYouth with Disabilities of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Heritage

David Leake, Ph.D.University of Hawaii at Manoa

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Self-Determination:

• Autonomy• Empowerment• Independence• Internal locus

of control• Intrinsic motivation

• Self-competence• Self-direction• Self-efficacy• Self-expression• Self-regulation• Self-realization• Self-reliance

Commonly associated with “individualistic”values or personal characteristics, such as:

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Human Development Ideals

CHILDHOOD ADULTHOOD

Immature Mature

Irresponsible Responsible

Independent?

Dependent

Interdependent?

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Both capacity and opportunity for self-determination are less likely to be present in conditions of poverty...and CLD groups tend to experience higher poverty rates.

Poverty

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What is really missing for many youth with disabilities is not so much a sense of individual achievement as a sense of being a valued member of a group.

Group Identity

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In the end, self-determination for CLD youth with disabilities requires adherence to another universal (and closely linked) value in the social services: individualization.

Individualization

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