Beyond Legal Obligation: The Role and Necessity of the Supervisor-Advocate in Creating a Socially Just, Disability-Affirmative Training Environment

Trainees with disabilities are consistently underrepresented in professional psychology and face considerable barriers throughout training, especially in clinical settings and supervision. In this article, we review some common barriers faced by trainees with disabilities in clinical and supervision settings. We then discuss how clinical supervisors can take an active role as supervisor-advocates who actively advocate for trainees with disabilities and promote disability-affirmative training environments in order to minimize these barriers. Major points of discussion include barriers to disclosing disability; asking for, and receiving, reasonable accommodations; and addressing attitudinal barriers among supervisors and colleagues. We also discuss potential barriers to being a supervisor-advocate for trainees with disabilities and ways to promote disability-affirmative supervisor-advocate behavior among one’s supervisees in order to build a generation of social-justice-oriented, disability-affirmative supervisors.