Emerging from the shadows: Digital stories of self-advocates with intellectual disabilities

Abstract

People with intellectual disabilities tend to be subjugated to social roles which make them feel invisible and misunderstood. This study examines the digital stories of self-advocates with intellectual disabilities and explores their experiences of becoming leaders. The digital stories of self-advocates show how people made themselves visible and heard to others through their individual questioning, forming important alliances and collective achievements. Their stories, articulated through the digital platform, were analysed using constructivist grounded theory. These digital stories demonstrated how individual self-advocates overcame adversity and found ways to have their voices heard and personal problems addressed. Each self-advocate possessed the insight to question unfair treatment and discrimination, and in turn was strengthened in their efforts to make change by becoming involved in a self-advocacy group. Self-advocacy can nurture both individual leadership capacities in people with intellectual disabilities and facilitate a safe space for people to come together, support one another and make positive change. Digital stories can illustrate how people with intellectual disabilities become self-advocates. The use of this technology has the potential to strengthen advocacy efforts.