Topic: Advocacy
The legal definition of Advocacy is the act of pleading for or arguing in favor of a social issue or actively supporting a cause or proposal calling for social and governmental action. It can also refer to the work or profession of an advocate(s) who represents a person or group. For lawyers, advocacy means representing the interests of the client in the best manner possible.
Community advocates are activists/advocates for social issues who organize others and sometimes raise funds to effectively lobby for causes that affect all members of society or smaller constituencies such as members of the disability community. Community advocates typically volunteer or work for lobbyist groups, think tanks, human rights, organizations representing special groups, animal rights, and environmental organizations, etc. Advocacy includes traditional activities such as civic demonstrations, litigations, government lobbying, and public education. It can also include capacity building, relationship building, forming networks, and leadership development. In general, advocacy refers to activities that are intended to influence society and specific legislation as in the implementation of the ADA.
Instruction:
Students are expected to write and submit weekly journal entry throughout the duration of the semester. The journal entry is an opportunity to reflect on the topics of disability issues that we will address during the course. In these reflective entries, students will select a disability issue from the weeks module and elaborate on how their own critical thinking, experiences, class discussions, the course readings, and current events relate to this issue. Through the journal entries, students will demonstrate their understanding of the issues discussed and the readings from the learning resources for the week, and use these ideas and reflections to enhance their own awareness and understanding of disability studies. Each Journal entry should be about 1 page in length but no more than 2 pages and 1.5 line-space and should have listed a minimum of three in-text citations and three academic references.