Self Advocacy

Learning How to Speak Up for Yourself

Self-advocacy is important to your success in a career, and this information provides clear steps on how to achieve this within the workplace. This includes knowing yourself, knowing your needs, and knowing solutions to your needs. The final step is approaching your employer with this information at a job site.

Self-advocacy is speaking for yourself to tell others what you want or need. Having a voice of your own is having the power to explain your needs to someone else. This means you have the power to choose what is best for you. There are 4 steps you have to take to accomplish self-advocacy skills.

1. Knowing yourself
2. Knowing your needs
3. Knowing strategies for needs
4. Knowing how to ask your employer

Know Yourself

First let’s get to know yourself. This means knowing if you are a person with a disability. This also means knowing your strengths and challenges. Strengths are things that you are good at and challenges are the things you are not so good at. Take the time to fill out this worksheet and get to know yourself better!

Know Your Needs

Once you know your disability, strengths, and challenges, the next step is to find out what it is that you need to complete a job within a workplace. Below is a list of hard work skills and soft work skills

Hard work skills:

• Ringing up at a cash register
• Cleaning
• Restocking

Soft work skills:

• Communication
• Problem solving
• Professionalism
• Teamwork
• Time Management
• Attitude
• Dependability
• Stamina

After reviewing the work skills,use this worksheet to find out what you need to complete a job within a workplace. For more information on these work skills, visit the pages linked below.

Know Strategies

Once you know your needs within the workplace, the next step is knowing how to get what they need to do a good job. You are able to achieve this by asking for a list of instructions, having a visual schedule for each day, or extra time to get a job task done.

The information on the Hard Work Skills and Soft Work Skills links above will be very helpful as you come up with ways to become a great employee.

Know How to Ask Employer

Knowing how to talk to your boss is the last step in self-advocacy. This is when you know your needs and want to ask your boss to help you get the things you need to do a good job. Your boss may call them accommodations. Complete the How to Ask Your Employer worksheet to provide yourself with the information you need to talk about with your boss if you choose to do so.

Once you complete the worksheet, set up a time to meet with your boss to talk about the worksheet. This will provide you information about your needs and the solutions you are asking for at your job.