Self Advocacy in Malaysia

Yesterday I had coffee with a staff member (TA) of United Voice, a self-advocacy organization for persons with learning disabilities. In the US this population may be referred to as "cognitively impaired." Members of the board of directors are learning disabled and they supervise (and can fire) TA. TA goes to meetings with other UV members/staff not as a coach, but as a partner.

Similar organizations exist in the US, but they seem to be "under the radar." I have met people in psychology and disability services who are aware of self-advocacy, but most other folks are as uniformed as I. I hope to do some basic research on these groups when I return and examine how they function as 501(c)(3)s. I would like to learn what they do, how they do it, and how they pay for it. In addition I want to explore board operations and board/staff (and TA) relations. Any ideas?

Since Malaysia does not have an organization equivalent to ARC, United Voice becomes an important source of expertise. TA mentioned her frustration with the lack of expertise within the public sector and the constant turnover in the bureaucracy. (I think that this is part of the British legacy).

I have introduced TA and the executive director of the Association of Self Advocates of North Carolina I am sure that both groups will learn from each other. I am trying to locate scholars in the area of self-advocacy or policies for cognitively impaired persons to widen TA's network? Let me know if you know of anyone.