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People with intellectual and developmental disabilities must often advocate for themselves in many facets of life, including sexuality. Because of this, sexual self-advocacy is an important concept to develop and apply to policy and practice. This paper provides a conceptualization of sexual self-advocacy, a view of sexuality formulated by adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities that is closely tied to the values of the SelfAdvocacy Movement. In describing the study process, this paper also puts forth the Participatory Action Research method, Nominal Group Technique, as an accessible method for gaining insight from adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The choice of Nominal Group Technique as a research method was motivated by several factors. Nominal Group Technique served to counterbalance many of the potential research difficulties when working with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including the need for understandable, inclusive, and participatory ways to access data from people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and addressed the topic of sexual self-advocacy that is important to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Although parents of students with disabilities have several rights accorded by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), they infrequently participate in legislative advocacy. Given that Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is expected to be reauthorized within the next few years, it is necessary to educate parents of students with disabilities to engage in broader systemic change. Using a culturally and linguistically diverse sample, this study evaluated the effectiveness of a parent advocacy program. We examined whether the program increased the empowerment, knowledge, and motivation of the participants. We also examined the long-term effects of the advocacy program. Using pre-and postsurveys, we measured change in knowledge of special education and the legislative process, empowerment, and public service motivation of 41 participants in the program. We also conducted 6-month, follow-up surveys with 29 (70.7%) of the participants to measure their legislative advocacy activities. Results indicated that participants demonstrated significant gains in empowerment, knowledge (of special education and the legislative process) and public service motivation. Also, after attending the program, participants engaged in legislative advocacy. This study has important implications about parent legislative advocacy for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.

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Although parents of children with disabilities have forged systemic changes for individuals with disabilities, little is known about the phenomenon of legislative advocacy (LA) including methods and barriers. In this United States‐based study, 49 parents of individuals with disabilities participated in focus groups about LA reporting both positive and negative experiences with LA. One focus group was held in Spanish; notably, none of the Spanish‐speaking parents reported experiences with LA. When discussing methods of LA, parents reported a variety of strategies including: building relationships, educating legislators, collective advocacy, and encouraging fathers and other parents to meet with legislators. Parents also reported barriers to LA: lack of knowledge, disempowerment and feeling overwhelmed. Implications for research to better understand LA and policy are discussed.