Self-Advocating
Before we get into strategies, it’s important to recognize that being part of a minority group means that justice for our community depends on how we act around the majority. Unfortunately, if neurotypical people experience our dysregulation or irritability, they may bring that negative experience to their next encounter with a neurodivergent person’s request for accommodations.
When we go high, we honour our fellow community members. It is very hard to self-advocate to individuals who have had negative interactions with people with disabilities in the past. Do your best to pay it forward, whenever possible, because unfortunately the way you act will reflect how our community is seen and understood.
Imagine an alien has come down from space and your responsibility is to ensure that individual interacts and integrates with humanity appropriately. How do you explain what being Black in America is like? How do you explain systemic racism and motivate them to follow important conventions for conduct which are specific to your demographic?
- At times self advocacy will feel a lot like trying to accomplish this.
- As a neurominority you may not necessarily struggle with:
- White people touching your hair.
- As a woman: Straight men trying to sleep with you, despite only being attracted to women.
- However, you do need the majority to stop these neurodivergent microagressions:
- “You don’t look X” [Disabled, Autistic, etc.]
- Confusing having a (dis)ability for having a lack of ability to perform in your role.
Neurotypical Apathy
Neurotypical people do not necessarily know the difference between someone who is oppressed, medically dysregulated because of predictable consequences from others, versus an entitled crazy person. When they cannot recognize the difference or understand how they are responding unprofessionally to someone else’s valid version of normal, they may just shut down altogether and punish the person with disabilities because professional standards do not include an expectation that teaches us how to coexist with individuals who experience other realities.
They rarely know how they are causing it and how they are making it worse for everyone involved. They will, however, be aware of the burden the interaction places on them, and because of this, are likely to make efforts to resolve it by exiting the situation (returning to what feels more familiar and sustainable). This is called strategic ignorance.
Resources
- Michelle Obama’s recent book is an important resource for neurominorities looking to learn how to carve their path (Obama 2022).
- By learning from someone we admire from another community which also faces challenges discrimination and intergenerational trauma, we can feel seen and learn how to live on our terms.
- If reading is not the most accessible format, Netflix has also come out with a documentary discussing her book which is co-hosted by Oprah (Mendoza 2023).
- Specialisterne is a Canadian organization with a great deal to offer.
Strategies for Influencing
Many strategies are used to train decision makers to influence1 others.
“When They Go Low, We Go High”
You will often find that going down without a fight also pays off in unexpected ways. Sometimes others feel guilty about turning down requests for accommodations. If you are humble and calm throughout the process, some neurotypical individuals in positions of power may go back on their decision and own up to their error in judgement.
It can be tempting to speak truth to power, but if you only experience marginalization through disability, you likely do not have the tools to survive that individuals of colour have developed over centuries. Though expressing your rage in the face of genuine injustice may be cathartic and produce heroic stories, the actual statistics on speaking truth to power in the vast majority of cases are neither typically effective, nor are they safe.
Lessons from WWII
_-_2.jpg "Auschwitz taken by Ron Porter licensed under CC0")
We know this in part because of work on the Holocaust where researchers found that the rates of Jews being sent to concentration camps were wildly affected by whether the local population went out of their way to help the Nazis or whether they kept to themselves. They found that not doing something that is clearly wrong is more effective than standing alone for something that is right.
What is effective? Finding allies.2
Excuses Versus Explanations
- When you hit a barrier and require support, instead of saying “I cannot do X because I have Y condition”
- … train yourself to say “Because I have X, I can only do Y when Z.”
[M.]I.C.E.
We trust you to find the conventional techniques, but one lesser-known strategy called MICE (Money, Ideology, Compromise, and Ego) is used by certain branches of the military. This framework helps to jump between strategies and avoid trying the same thing and expecting a different result. Different instructors will respond to different strategies. In a non-military setting we encourage you to go with ICE, as bribing your professors is ill-advised.
What Does ICE Mean Practically?
[I] Ideology
Work out what type of student your professor will be willing to accommodate.
- Do they respond to social justice paradigms of privilege?
- If so, a professor may be willing to accommodate you because of your disability. If they require an explanation, be prepared to explain how an accommodation will allow you to access the material.
- A professor who needs more of an explanation will need more medical specifics.
- Example: “As part of the diagnostic criteria for my disability I struggle with executive functioning. This accommodation can give me the tools I need to access the content. Without this reasonable adjustment, I will be penalized for my executive functioning, rather than rewarding me for my mastery of the content.”
- Example: “I have ADHD, which means that as part of the diagnostic criteria, I struggle with executive functioning. This affects my ability to complete the administrative prerequisites to thriving in the classroom. I require an extension to allow for more time to complete these tasks so that I can access the intellectual challenge from the learning, which is the skill being assessed in the course as well as my strength.”
- If they do not respond to a social justice paradigm (typically more conservative professors), do your best to demonstrate how you will be unable to get credit for your work if you do not have access to an accommodation.
- Do coursework ahead of time, so when you are at risk of doing poorly you can say that you already studied the content.
- This rules out arguments that can be made of you being undeserving student. If you studied and still do poorly, the professor knows your disability is the culprit.
- Explain alternative course structures which would be more accessible to you with the resources the professor has access to (number of TAs, class size, etc.) so that the professor can become more aware of accessibility tradeoffs they have unknowingly created with their course design as-is.
- This motivates them to help you in the present because they may adapt the course design in the future.
- Do coursework ahead of time, so when you are at risk of doing poorly you can say that you already studied the content.
[C] Compromise
If this does not work, see if you can use classic negotiation to remedy the situation. What can you give up? How can you help them? See if there is a trade you can make.
- Example: Reweighing your grade or dropping an assignment/
- If your assignments build on each other and you need an extension, dropping the earlier assignments that have not been graded yet can save your graders time.
- If it is cumulative, your skills will be assessed anyways in later assignments.
[E] Ego
If all else fails, appeal to their ego; groveling.
These approaches are likely to be more successful, regardless of the grader’s personal opinion on supporting students with disabilities.
Aids: Generic Office Self-Advocacy
- How to ask for a raise.
Important
If you are only willing to grovel, you are not asking for reasonable accommodations, you are asking for a freebie.