Promoting self-advocacy and disability awareness in secondary students with disabilities

The research questions addressed is, how can a curriculum for special education high school students be created that supports the development of self-advocacy strategies and an understanding of the student\u27s own disabilities? The capstone documents the need for further self-advocacy training and due process training for students with disabilities receiving special education services. Key influences included former and current students, peers and authors such as Heacox, Tomlinson and Vygotsky. The research method was a curriculum project. The author created a collection of lesson plans that lead high school students through an understanding of their disability and their Individual Education Plan (IEP). In writing this curriculum, the author has experienced success in creating lessons that will challenge students to understand their disability, enable teachers to differentiate in the classroom and allow the student to have a define role in the special education team