Journal on Developmental Disabilities
Le journal sur les handicaps du développement

Does Advocacy Have a Future?

Robin Jackson

Abstract

This paper seeks to question whether advocacy services for people with developmental disabilities have a future. Attention is drawn first of all to Wolfensberger's view that the effectiveness of advocacy services has been seriously impaired by the strident message uncritically proclaimed by certain sections of the Self-Advocacy Movement. It is the contention of this paper that advocacy services have only an ephemeral existence. Once the statutory agencies which fund the advocacy services realize the challenge that independent advocacy services pose, they feel obliged to react. Examples are cited of statutory agencies in the U.K. which are now developing their own in-house 'independent' advocacy services. The continuing difficulty of citizen advocacy schemes in recruiting sufficient volunteers, when coupled with the in-built capacity of selfadvocacygroups to self-destruct, means that parent advocacy is likely to remain the only form of lay advocacy able to bring about significant changes in the quality of services for people with developmental disabilities. Plus ça change, plus ç'est la même chose.

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