The Autism and Neurodiversity Self Advocacy Handbook: Developing the Skills to Determine Your Own Future

by Barb Cook, Yenn Purkis

Being autistic, you might come across more challenges than others around you, such as dealing with ableism, discrimination in employment or difficulties in your relationships. Learning to successfully self-advocate will help you to build confidence, strengthen your relationships and ensure your needs are met.

Written by two autistic activists, this book will give you the tools and strategies to advocate for yourself in any situation. It covers specific scenarios including work, school, and family and relationships, as well as looking at advocacy for the wider community, whether that's through social media, presentations or writing. Additionally, the book provides advice on building independence, developing your skills, standing up for others and resolving conflict.

The authors also explore the overall impact of self-advocacy in all areas of your life, building a sense of confidence, resilience and control. Drawing on the authors' extensive experience, this book will help you to successfully prioritise your needs and rights, challenge what is unfair or unjust and make your voice heard.

Genres: Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Nonfiction, Mental Health

167 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 21, 2022

Reviews

[Darcey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Parts of this book were helpful but I did find I had to skip certain parts as they weren’t relevant/felt repetitive to me.

[Lyra van der Berge · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of the content in the book seemed obvious to me personally, which led me to skim. I think it could be very helpful to those who've never self-advocated or have not yet learnt the lessons in this book through painful trial and error, however, so it could be a good resource for some.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent handbook on advocacy and neurodiversity. I feel like, though, it leaned a little too hard on the handbook aspect in that it feels like it was written for a specific neurodiverse population in mind rather than devoting time to what advocacy could look like for all sorts of neurodiverse people. Again, it's good, there were moments where I was like, "I need this in my life." I just wish it went a bit harder, you know?

[Daniel Hardy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book a lot. It has a lot of great tips across a variety of subjects- it's not just assertiveness training but helpful advice for how to navigate many types of situations - relationships, healthcare, school, work. It's Australian based so some stuff doesn't quite apply to USA but it's easy enough to understand where things are different.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was going to give this book 3 stars because at first I felt that advocacy for neurodivergent people should be a chapter rather than a whole book. But I gave it four stars because it is an important area and the book provides a lot of useful and practical advice for both neurodivergent and neurotypical people.