Self-Assessment of Self-Advocacy Skills Among Students with Special Needs

Although universities provide an equivalent opportunity to provide students with the necessary education services and support, students with learning disabilities still experience academic and personal challenges at the university settings. However, students need to know how to advocate themselves in order to acquire the necessary assistant. Therefore, this study aimed at developing framework to provide students with learning disabilities with the required supports and service at the different levels of the university as well as to improve self-advocacy skills among students with learning disabilities. 8 students participated in this study and qualitative method was adopted. The finding showed that students scored moderate level of self-advocacy as well as some suggestion and recommendation were reported by the students as additional supports and services are needed at the university level.

the students' study completion, particularly students suffering from disabilities (physical or cognitive) (Sisk, 2019). According to Roberts et al. (2016), research are required to pinpoint the effectiveness of self-advocacy instruction outcomes in students with distinct learning disabilities.
Tedla and Negassa (2019) conducted a study to identify self-advocacy skills among blind university students in Ethiopia. Negative results were found as blind students indicated that they were unable to be selfadvocates for their inclusion. Roper (2016) also investigated the effect of self-advocacy intervention on students with disabilities self-advocacy skills. The result intervention positively enhanced student's self-advocacy skills. Karpicz (2020) and Daly-Cano et al. (2015) also highlighted that self-advocacy is a critical practice that help students with disabilities in improving their retention and increasing their success. To compound the matter further, existing studies largely focused on schools' students and therefore, self-advocacy information on the level of university students with learning disabilities call for more studies to fill the literature gap (Andrews, 2018;Tedla, 2017;Roberts et al., 2016). When it comes to university students, special support services appear to be the most appropriate context through which students' learning disabilities can enhance and support their selfadvocacy skills. Thus, in essence, the present study contributes to the education field by pinpointing the perspectives of university students with specific learning disabilities in regard to the specific type of educational support required and provided as well as specific self-advocacy knowledge and rights elements affecting selfdisclosure and search for support in universities. This may have implications to educational institutions as to the provision of effective self-advocacy teaching, to direct the students' preparation towards achieving their goals and to always be prepared. Thus, this study aims to determine the answers to the following research questions: 1-Do support and activities provided to students with learning disabilities and needs impact their selfadvocacy from their perspective? 2-What suggestions would students report to assist those with learning disabilities and needs in the context of university?

Methodology
This study primarily aims to examine if instruction of supported sources is related with increased self-advocacy skills among students with learning disabilities, following their exposure to several sessions on its potential advantages. The study used an exploratory collective case studies approach. The case study approach was appropriate for investigating real life experiences among participants The study adopted a qualitative method approach, to achieve the study objective. The choice of using qualitative method as the study focused on the effect of the university services provided to enhance students with disabilities self-advocacy by interacting effectively with their peers and university staff.

Sample
The exploratory study was toke place at one university in south region. The place was chosen since the university provided students with more service and treat them confidentiality. Eight participants took part in the present study and benefited from the offered sources at the university. All students were in their first degree and affiliated with the school they attended. The sample's mean age was 18-22 years, and students comprising the sample were questioned if they sought assistance from their instructions, if they were with learning disabilities and undergone the provided sessions. The researcher received approval to conduct this study from the university where the study was conducted.

Measurement
The measurement used to gauge self-advocacy was Self-Advocacy Interview for Students (SAI) taken from Brunello-Prudencio (2001). Specifically, the former comprised of 3open ended questions. Three questions were highlighted such as; If you need assistance due to your learning disability/needs, what materials would you need to provide in order to report your disability? If you need assistance due to your learning disability/needs, when and to whom would you deliver it? Were the services provided by the college helpful in achieving your needs and do they support you in succeeding in your studies so far?

Results of the Study
Three questions were answered by students in order to show their feedback about supported services. The results of the 8 interviews somehow confirmed the answers to the qualitative questions. First question, if you need assistance due to your learning disability or needs; what materials would you need to provide in order to report your disability? Regarding to the first question "what materials would you need to provide in order to report your disability", the result showed that 6 out 8 students indicated that they colleges should organized a weekly individual and group meeting with students with learning disability as well as they would contact a specialist or disable coordinator. The other two students indicated that they do not need to provide anything as they can ask for help whenever needed. Second question, if you need assistance due to your learning disability or needs; when Journal of Education and Practice www.iiste.org ISSN 2222-1735 (Paper) ISSN 2222-288X (Online) Vol.12, No.33, 2021 and to whom would you deliver it? Regarding to the second question "if you need assistance due to your learning disability or needs; to whom would you deliver it"? 6 students indicated that they would contact specialist or disable coordinator regularly, and the other two students indicated that they would contact their respected teacher directly whenever needed. Third question, were the service provided by the college helpful in achieving your needs and do those supports help you to success in your study so far? Regarding to the third question, "were the service provided by the college helpful in achieving your needs and do those supports help you to success in your study so far?" 5 of the students indicated that the supported services provided were helpful, another two students stated that some services were helpful but not all; and the other one answered that the supported services were not sufficient as the colleges need to ensure that the class environment is safe and the activities and classes need to be prepared with the adequate time that suit their needs.

Discussion
In the context of educational institutions, self-advocacy skills have been described as an important tool that students with learning disability can avail from to succeed in their academic endeavors. The universities offer different services to assist students in obtaining advocacy skills and in regard to this study, the importance of such skills in a university setting is examined. For the first interview question (what materials would you need to provide in order to report your disability?), 6 from 8 students interviews revealed the need for their colleges to organize weekly individual and group meetings with students with learning disability, for consulting specialists and for consulting a relevant coordinator. The remaining two stated that they did not need to provide anything and that they can request for assistance when needed. Moving on to the second interview question (if you need assistance due to their learning disability/needs, to whom would you ask for it?). Six out of eight students showed that they would ask a specialist/coordinator for students with disabilities on a regular basis, while the other two opted to contact their instructors directly when need be. Lastly, for the last question (were the services provided by the college helpful in achieving your needs and do they support your success in your study so far?), five out of 8 students described the services as helpful, two described some of the services as helpful but not all, while the remaining student stated that the services were not sufficient in supporting the safety of the class environment and more activities and classes need to be organized and prepared, with adequate time to be conducted, to meet the needs. Some suggestions also were highlighted by the students such as organizing some activities which may help them to adjust at the university and seek for help whenever needed without any negative feeling as we as the activities should be given by specialists who can give their right directions towards their learning and visited them whenever needed in order to improve their self-advocacy and achieve their learning outcomes. The results of the student may be due to the fact that students may need other support forms that are appropriate to fulfill their needs. Literature (Tagayuna et al., 2005) supported those students with learning disabilities may benefited from the support services provided in the university. Still another reason may be because the college support should be in the form of counseling and advising units focusing on activities and sessions to assist students with learning disabilities. The activities may be provided through academic workshops involving memorization aids, active communication and reduced exam anxiety.

Limitation and Recommendation
The participants to this study numbered eight students, and in this regard, future studies may include more participants. In the same way, some factors were excluded from this study like family and environmental factors, and thus, future studies may examine their effect on the self-advocacy skills of university students. In addition, each university has its agenda for support students with learning disabilities and thus, agendas may be compared by future studies to reach the best practices/ policies that are suitable to this specific population. The present study obtained the students' perceptions of the support provided by the universities, so future studies may instead obtain the perceptions of instructors to provide insight into the other services provided by the university to facilitate the process of learning and teaching. The study defined students with learning disabilities as those that seek assistance for their health issues or cognitive issues, and for this, future studies should clarify their definition in order by conducting a comparison between them and those without disabilities.

Conclusion
This study's main objective is to highlight the support services for students with learning disabilities provided by the universities and stressed on such services accordingly. Thus, the study minimizes the literature gap by specifically investigating the study focus and by developing a model to enhance the self-advocacy of students with learning disabilities and to discern what they can benefit from the supporting model. The study provides a synthesis of the findings regarding the academic services that improve student's self-advocacy among the participants of this study, and provide general conclusions across the services provided in the qualitative data. The results suggest that the students participated in this study demonstrated some improvement in using their self-advocating behavior. The study results confirmed that university students with learning disabilities have