From rights to results: systemic advocacy and leadership by people with intellectual disabilities

摘要

ABSTRACT Systemic advocacy has long been seen as an important tool for advancing the rights of people with intellectual disabilities. The New South Wales Council for Intellectual Disability has been a leading systemic advocacy organisation for over 60 years. This article describes how the Council for Intellectual Disability goes about its work, informed by the theory of principled negotiation and based on a central role for people with intellectual disabilities, building coalitions with allies, being strategic in goals, mounting concerted campaigns, and working assertively but col-laboratively with governments. The Council for Intellectual Disability's advocacy is illustrated by an account of the successful Our Health Counts campaign, carried out in the leadup to the 2019 Federal election. The authors argue that a vibrant advocacy sector leads to benefits for both people with disabilities and governments, and that people with intellectual disabilities need their own systemic advocate.