On this page, we talk about speaking up for yourself.
Why it is important to speak up for yourself
Speaking up for yourself can support you to:
- know what you want and need
- work towards your goals
- have more control over your life
- make your life better.
Speaking up for yourself can also include understanding your and explaining them to other people.
Rights are rules about how people must treat you:
- fairly
- equally.
Speaking up for yourself can also help other people with similar experiences to you.
Understanding your rights
You have the right to:
- speak up for yourself
- make decisions about your life
- do what is important to you.
You have the right to speak up about problems that affect you.
For example, at work.
Discrimination is when people or services treat you unfairly because of a part of who you are.
You also have the right to try to fix problems in ways that you think are best for you.
Someone else might try to fix a problem for you.
They might think it is a nice thing to do.
But you have the right to ask them not to do this.
You can find out more on our page about your rights.
How to speak up for yourself
There are different things you can do to make speaking up easier.
You can write a list of things that stop you from doing what you:
- need to do
- want to do.
You can also research your disability.
For example, you can talk to:
- other people who have your disability
- health professionals.
You can also think about:
- what skills you have
- what you are interested in.
Understanding what you want
It is a good idea to understand what you want so you can get the support you need.
You can think about the goals you want to achieve.
For example, you might want to get a job.
You can also think about what you need to do to reach these goals.
For example, you will need to know how to travel between home and work.
It is also a good idea to think about if there is anything that might stop you from achieving your goals.
For example, your parents might think you are not ready to get a job.
You can make a plan to deal with what is stopping you.
For example, how to show your parents that you are ready to get a job.
Working towards your goals
Part of speaking up for yourself includes working towards what you want and need.
This can be exciting and scary at the same time.
You can get an aid or piece of equipment that supports you to do what you want or need to do.
For example, you can organise someone to change parts of your car so that you can drive safely.
You can get support from a professional to improve a certain skill.
For example, a could support you to improve how you move your body.
Physiotherapists can help you:
- with ways to move your body
- get better after an injury.
You can also get support from organisations that can speak up for you.
They can support you to find the right person to contact if you need to fix a problem.
Example story
We wrote a story to show an example of someone speaking up for themselves.
The story we wrote is about a person called Thanh.
The story and the people in it are not real.
We made them up to explain how to speak up for yourself.
Thanh’s story
One of the people that Thanh works with often talks to her like she is a child.
He always offers to help Thanh when she has not asked him to.
He also does her work for her.
Even though she wants to do her work by herself.
This makes her feel annoyed.
Thanh writes about how she feels and decides to talk with him in person.
She tells him she:
- can do her own work
- will ask for support if she needs it.
She also tells her manager about what has been happening.
Thanh was able to fix the problem because she spoke up for herself.
