Dick Sobsey   

 
 

Recently, I was being cross-examined in court as an expert witness on treatment and maltreatment of people with disabilities. My credentials were being challenged, and I was accused of being “an advocate.” The implication was that it is possible to be an advocate or an expert, but one can’t possibly be both. In other words, one can know something or one can care about something, but you can’t actually know about anything that you care about. I didn’t have the nerve to say it in court, but I suspect that the opposite may be true.


Everybody advocates for something and ultimately being “right” or “wrong” is an issue of the quality of the facts and arguments that we bring to the table. 

 

Dick Sobsey

Dick Sobsey is a professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Alberta. He is the Director of the John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre and of the JP Das Developmental Disabilities Centre. He has worked with people with mental and physical disabilities since 1968 and is the father of young adult with severe and multiple disabilities.


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