I Can Advocate for Myself
Use fictional examples. Leave out diagnoses, medical information, names, passwords and contact details.
Learning goal: Practice communicating a learning need with chosen adult support.
Advocacy can be spoken, signed, typed, drawn or supported by another person. You do not have to manage access alone. Adults share responsibility for removing barriers and listening to your choices.
- Choose a real or made-up learning situation. Leave out names, diagnoses and private details.
- Explore the three activities. Choose supports that fit you; skip any that do not.
- Write, type, draw, point, sign, use AAC or ask someone to scribe your own ideas.
- Choose one next step and an adult who can help make it possible.
Grades 3–5 support: Use the prompts and examples, or explain your ideas in your own way. Ask for words, a scribe or one direction at a time.
A challenge-and-access request
A class task is too easy in content but difficult to write by hand. Practice requesting both challenge and access.
I am ready to explore…
To show my thinking, I need…
I Can Advocate for Myself
My meeting voice
Use a fictional learning meeting. Choose a goal and one question you want included.
A learning goal I want adults to hear
A question or message for the meeting
Optional deeper thinking · Grades 6–8
Prepare a reasoned request for a complex investigation with access options and a plan for checking whether the support works.
I Can Advocate for Myself
My help-seeking script
Choose how to send your request and who can help if it is not heard.
Example, not an answer to copy: I want a more complex question, and I need to type or dictate my explanation.
My message or communication method
Adult support and follow-up step
My next step
What will I try, and who can support it? Write, draw, dictate, sign or use AAC.
I Can Advocate for Myself
Accessibility & alternative responses
Offer AAC phrases, a trusted adult advocate, written messages and supported participation. Meeting voice is optional and does not replace formal planning.
Teacher facilitation
Role-play with consent and avoid requiring public disability disclosure. Help implement the request; do not make assertiveness a prerequisite for accommodations or access to gifted learning.
Family-use suggestion
Invite the learner to choose what to share. Try one support together, ask what helped, and change the plan with their permission. Do not turn this sheet into a test or require private information.
Specialist formats
These printouts are not Braille. Embossed Braille and specialist tactile materials need qualified, technically validated production. The accessible digital version supplies structured text, not a specialist-format substitute.