Supporting people with learning difficulties in self-advocacy groups and models of disability

This paper addresses the support offered by ‘advisors’ to people with learning difficulties in self-advocacy groups. Previous literature has failed to account for the multifaceted nature of self-advocacy support. This failure has resulted in simplistic and unfair attacks on professional (staff) supporters; a lack of conceptualizations of ‘support’ which are grounded in the empowering discourse of the social model of disability; and ignored the self-determination of self-advocates with learning difficulties themselves. I will present vignettes of support (‘interventions’) offered by advisors that I observed, which were empowering and disempowering, drawing on an ethnographic study of four self-advocacy groups. These interventions can be best understood as either reflecting a social model or an individual model of disability. Three pairs of intervention are presented reflecting the social-individual dichotomy. With reference to disability theory it is argued that those acts which reflect a social model offer a more authentic means of promoting the self-advocacy skills of people with learning difficulties. Finally, the intra-support networks of self-advocates are exemplified, suggesting that any support offered by professionals or advisors needs to be sensitive to the interventions of people with learning difficulties themselves. This paper concludes by offering practical pointers to policy-makers, service providers and others working with people with learning difficulties.