Self-advocacy

The term self-advocacy, which means speaking up for oneself and one's interests, is used as a name for civil rights movements and mutual aid networks for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The term arose in the broader civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s, and is part of the disability rights movement. Today there are self-advocacy organizations across the world. The self advocacy movement began in the late 1960s. Before this, most organizations were run by parents of children with developmental disabilities, such as the March of Dimes, which began in the 1950s. The first self advocacy group originated in Sweden in the late 1960s where Dr. Bengt Nirje organized a club where people with disabilities and without could meet up, decide where they wanted to go, go on an outing and then meet to discuss their experiences. Nirje wanted to provide people with disabilities "normal" experiences in the community. Previously at this time, people with developmental disabilities were not considered able to make any decisions, including about where they wanted to go, and this program indicated a drastic departure. Nirje believed that people with developmental disabilities should be allowed to make decisions, and crucially also allowed to make mistakes, saying "To be allowed to be human means to be allowed to fail." This concept is called the dignity of risk and remains one of the central values of the self advocacy movement. In 1968, a conference was held in Sweden as part of the normalization model where people with intellectual and developmental disabilities came together to discuss their lives, their opinions and their hopes. In 1969, the first ever training was held to teach adults with developmental disabilities how to advocate for themselves politically. One man at the training said, "...I would like to organize because I know how much our comrades at the institutional schools need help to be more respected.