Course Objective
This course’s objective is to learn to communicate own needs effectively.
Target Audience
Students and interns joining multicultural or neurodiverse teams.
Learning Outcomes
After completing this course, learners can understand how:
- Sharing needs early prevents misunderstandings: Initiating a dialogue about requirements during onboarding ensures that expectations are aligned and prevents performance gaps caused by environmental barriers.
- Frame requests as ways to improve performance: Presenting accommodations as strategic tools, rather than special favors, demonstrates professional responsibility and emphasizes your commitment to delivering high-quality results.
Duration: 20-30 min. Prerequisites: None.
Introduction
Self-advocacy represents one of the most delicate yet essential competencies in modern workplaces, particularly in environments that are not fully adapted to individual differences. It involves the ability to articulate personal needs, working preferences, and support requirements in a way that is both clear and context-sensitive.
Unlike technical skills, self-advocacy is not a fixed competence acquired once and for all. It is a dynamic communicative practice that evolves over time, shaped by experience, organisational context, and interpersonal relationships. It requires continuous negotiation between self-awareness, professional expectations, and perceived organisational openness.
This crash course examines how individuals can develop effective self-advocacy strategies while maintaining autonomy over disclosure decisions and preserving psychological safety.
Goal and extended analysis
The primary goal of this section is to support the development of advanced communication strategies that enable individuals to express their needs effectively within professional environments, while maintaining control over personal disclosure and preserving relational balance.
One of the foundational aspects of self-advocacy is timing. The moment at which needs are communicated can significantly influence how they are received and integrated into working relationships. Early communication allows expectations to be aligned before patterns of interaction become established. This proactive approach reduces the likelihood of misunderstanding and creates space for adjustments to be incorporated naturally into workflows rather than being perceived as disruptions.
However, timing alone is not sufficient. The decision of whether to disclose personal information remains deeply contextual and individual. Disclosure is not a requirement for effective self-advocacy; rather, it is one possible tool among many. Individuals must be able to assess their own level of comfort, the degree of trust in the environment, and the potential implications of sharing personal information. This reinforces the importance of autonomy in managing one’s professional identity.
When requests for adjustments are made, framing becomes a central communicative strategy. Positioning needs in relation to shared objectives, such as improving quality of work, increasing efficiency, or enhancing focus, helps align individual requirements with organisational interests. This reframing is particularly important in environments where differences may otherwise be interpreted as exceptions or deviations from standard practice.
Over time, self-advocacy evolves into a refined professional capability. With experience, individuals develop greater clarity in identifying their needs, more confidence in articulating them, and stronger ability to engage in constructive dialogue with supervisors and colleagues. This evolution is not only beneficial at the individual level, but also contributes to broader cultural shifts within organisations. As more individuals engage in transparent and constructive communication, workplace cultures gradually become more aware of diversity in working styles and more capable of accommodating it.
Additional readings:
Bury, S. M., Jellett, R., Spoor, J. R., & Hedley, D. (2020). It defines who I am: Disclosure experiences of autistic adults. Autism, 24(6), 1458–1471.
Cage, E., Di Monaco, J., & Newell, V. (2018). Experiences of autism acceptance and mental health. Autism, 22(3), 275–283.
Davidson, J., & Henderson, V. L. (2010). Coming out as autistic: Identity and disclosure. Disability & Society, 25(2), 155–170.
Nicolaidis, C. (2012). What can physicians learn from the neurodiversity movement? AMA Journal of Ethics, 14(6), 503–510.
Raymaker, D. M., et al. (2020). Barriers to healthcare and employment for autistic adults. Autism in Adulthood, 2(1), 43–54.
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