Theme 1 Videos. Advocacy in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities:
Using a Cultural Lens
Advocacy includes self-determination, autonomy, and making choices based on preferences, cultural practices and beliefs, and abilities. People with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families may advocate in many different ways. Advocacy can involve speaking up for personal needs, making choices, protecting rights, changing policies or practices, and promoting fuller inclusion in community life.
This theme explores advocacy through a cultural lens. Culture influences how people understand advocacy, when and how they choose to advocate, who advocates, and what advocacy looks like in daily life.
Why This Topic Matters
Advocacy is not experienced the same way by every person or family. Culture can shape how people view power, authority, independence, interdependence, and the role of family in decision-making.
For some people and families, raising concerns with a service provider, school, agency, or government system may feel familiar and expected. For others, it may feel uncomfortable, unfamiliar, or even risky. Understanding these differences can help organizations and staff become better partners with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.
Read the Topic Guide
Read the Guide: Advocacy in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: Using a Cultural Lens
This web-based guide includes key definitions, cultural considerations, reflection questions, and references related to advocacy, self-advocacy, self-determination, and systems change.
Watch the Videos
Note on videos: Audio and captions are available in multiple languages. Use the gear icon in the video player to choose your language.
Topical Video
Advocacy in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: Using a Cultural Lens
Featuring: Kara, Lydia O., and Tabby
Culture, identity, disability, language, family, and lived experience all shape how people understand and practice advocacy. This video explores self-advocacy, advocacy with and for others, and systems advocacy, while challenging the idea that there is a single "default" way to understand disability or support. Viewers are invited to value difference, build relationships, share power, and create circles of support that honor the whole person.
Personal Story Videos
My Life On Canvas
Featuring: Lisa, Lydia C., and David
Lisa's story is one of creativity, determination, and self-expression. Born in Taiwan with cerebral palsy, Lisa defied early expectations and became a powerful artist and advocate. Through her paintings, books, and foundation, she uses her voice and talents to share who she is and to help other people with disabilities and their families access support and opportunity.
A Circle of Support
Featuring: Tabby and Teeva
Tabby shares how curiosity, faith, relationships, and love have shaped her family's support for Teeva. Instead of focusing only on labels or limitations, Tabby and Teeva's circle of support centers Teeva's strengths, connections, and possibilities. Their story invites viewers to think differently about advocacy, planning, and the relationships that help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities live full and meaningful lives.
About the Speakers and Storytellers
Tabby Anvari
Tabby Anvari is the managing director of FACIEN, a global marketing consultancy that provides strategic services to small and medium-sized enterprises. As the parent of an adult with intellectual and developmental disabilities, she advocates for diverse voices and needs within the disability community. She serves on the Family, Individual, and Caregiver Advisory Board for Person Centered Services and on the Community Advisory Council at the Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities. A longtime member of the Bahá’í Faith, Tabby also serves in regional and local leadership roles and supports community capacity-building through the Training Institute Organization.
Teeva Anvari
Teeva Anvari is an artist whose work spans visual art, music, rhythm, and movement. She uses art and music as primary languages of expression, creating work rich in color, pattern, texture, and joy. Teeva plays the djembe drum and the steel tongue drum, using rhythm and sound to express emotion and energy. Her creative work invites viewers to connect beyond words. In Teeva’s words: “Can you hear the sound of my colors… can you feel the rhythm of my patterns? Then you have heard the song in my heart.”
Kara Ayers
Dr. Kara Ayers is an Associate Professor and Associate Director at the University of Cincinnati Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities. She champions disability justice and health equity and directs the National Center for Disability, Equity, and Intersectionality. Her research focuses on disability representation in media, disabled parenting rights, and disability ethics. Dr. Ayers works to turn research into action by advancing policy reform, inclusive health care, and anti-ableist approaches that support equity and celebrate human diversity.
David Baw
David Baw is Lisa Baw’s father and an advocate who has learned from Lisa’s strength, self-advocacy, and determination. Through Lisa’s life and work, he has come to recognize the importance of acknowledging the inner strength of people with disabilities and supporting them as they find their path, speak up for their rights, and pursue their gifts.
Lisa Baw
Lisa Baw is an artist, advocate, and student born in Taiwan with cerebral palsy. She began painting as a child and later developed a passion for oil painting after using it to strengthen her eye-hand coordination. Her artwork has been exhibited in Taiwan and the United States, featured in private collections, and published in Chin Jung Baw’s Album of Paintings, which the Taipei City Government recognized as a Best Children’s Book in 2009. Her life and work have also been highlighted in Living in True Life and I Can. Through her artwork, published books, community fundraising, and the Wishdreamer Foundation, Lisa uses creativity and storytelling to advocate for people with disabilities and help families access support and opportunity. She is currently studying fine arts at Queensborough Community College.
Lydia Chu
Lydia Chu is a writer, jewelry designer, and image consultant. She is the author of The Secret Code of Healing Through Clothing. Born in Korea, she studied English Education at Seoul Women’s University, immigrated to Taiwan as a young adult, and later moved to the United States. She is passionate about community service and uses her artistic and teaching talents to inspire confidence, inner beauty, love, and kindness in others.
Lydia Ocasio-Stoutenburg
Dr. Lydia Ocasio-Stoutenburg is an assistant professor of education at Penn State in the Department of Educational Psychology, Counseling, and Special Education. Her research uses qualitative and ethnographic approaches to center the voices of children and caregivers at the intersections of race, disability, and other historically marginalized identities. Her work focuses on intellectual and developmental disabilities, transition supports, family-community empowerment, and early intervention. She is committed to cultivating co-advocates among caregivers, practitioners, and community members to address inequities across systems and communities.