Learning about self-advocacy from life history: A case study from the United States

Many people with learning difficulties want to tell the stories of their life and have done so in collaboration with academic researchers. Life histories of people with learning difficulties are a good way to learn about self-advocacy. Life histories can tell us about how self-advocacy began and the support people need to be self-advocates. Tom Allen lived in institutions for 60years. His life history describes how he could speak up about his wishes, the people who helped him speak up and how he was able to move out of the institution.