Nothing about us without us!

Self-advocates are important contributors to LEND. As trainees they bring to LEND the disability point of view. They contribute to the discussion around disability and also help educate other trainees how to interact with people with disabilities. For example, self-advocates help people understand about the preferred language that should be used to talk to and talk about people with disabilities. Self-advocates also serve as support networks and as a vision for the future for parents who have often been told that their child will not be able to do things.

Self-advocates also benefit from being in LEND. Self-advocates learn the medical point of view about disability and the different parts of when someone is being diagnosed. With this knowledge self-advocates will better be able to partner with physicians. This information will also be helpful because self-advocacy groups are going to become more diverse to include people with all different disabilities so with this knowledge self-advocates will be able to include them better.

Here is a video our self-advocacy coordinator Tia Nelis made about self-advocates being involved in LEND.