Read The Underground Advocates: Legislative Advocacy for and with Consumers with Disabilitiesand answer the questions below, including integration of the course material. If you would prefer to upload a video recording as your response, please feel free but be sure to include referenced material.
1. What important elements should be considered in building or forming coalitions between bureaucrats and consumers? In what ways do the bureaucrats in this case example behave as you would have expected? In what ways did they behave in unexpected ways?
2. Why is it important for a coalition for disability issues to have a person with a disability as spokesperson? Are there certain circumstances when a person without a disability should be the spokesperson?
3. Look at the roles that the underground advocates assumed. If you had been part of the coalition, what role would you have played? What type of responsibilities would you have taken on that might have increased the coalition’s chances of success?
4. If you were Janet, how would you have dealt with your boss “pulling the plug” after your presentation? What are the potential consequences of the course of action that you would choose?