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What is Independent Living?

Essentially, it is living just like everyone else--having opportunities to make decisions that affect one's life, being able to pursue activities of one's own choosing--limited only in the same ways that anyone else are limited. Independent living should not be defined in terms of living on one's own, being employed in a job fitting one's capabilities and interests, or having an active social life.  These are aspects of living independently. Independent living has to do with self-determination.  It is having the right and the opportunity to pursue a course of action.  And, it is having the freedom to fail--and to learn from one's failures--as everyone does.

Most Americans take for granted opportunities they have regarding living arrangements, employment situations, means of transportation, social and recreational activities, and other aspects of everyday life. For many Americans with disabilities, however, barriers in their communities take away or severely limit their choices.  These barriers may be obvious, such as lack of ramped entrances for people who use wheelchairs, lack of interpreters or captioning for people with hearing impairments, lack of Brailled or taped copies of printed material for people who have visual impairments. Other barriers--frequently less obvious--can be even more limiting to efforts on the part of people with disabilities to live independently, and they result from misunderstandings and prejudices about disability.  These barriers result in low expectations about things people with disabilities can achieve.

The history of independent living stems from a philosophy which states that people with disabilities should have the same civil rights, options, and control over choices in their own lives as do people without disabilities.  The history of independent living is closely tied to the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s.  There are similar issues like disgraceful treatment based on discrimination and stereotypes in housing, education, transportation, and employment. The strategies and tactics are very similar. This history and its driving philosophy also have much in common with other political and social movements of the country in the late 1960s and early 1970s. There were at least five movements that have influenced the disability rights movement:

What is Consumer Direction?

Consumer Direction describes programs and services where people are given maximum choice and control over their care. When people say they want to be "independent" or they want autonomy" or "self-direction," they are talking about consumer direction. In consumer-directed programs, consumers can choose to select, manage, and dismiss their workers. They can decide which services to use and what time of day they will come.

What is Dignity of Risk?

Overprotection may appear on the surface to be kind, but it can be really evil. An oversupply can smother people emotionally, squeeze the life out of their hopes and expectations, and strip them of their dignity.

Overprotection can keep people from becoming all they could become.

Many of our best achievements came the hard way: We took risks, fell flat, suffered, picked ourselves up, and tried again. Sometimes we made it and sometimes we did not. Even so, we were given the chance to try. Persons with [disabilities] need these chances, too.

Of course, we are talking about prudent risks. People should not be expected to blindly face challenges that, without a doubt, will explode in their faces. Knowing which chances are prudent and which are not - this is a new skill that needs co be acquired.

On the other hand, a risk is really only when it is not known beforehand whether a person can succeed...

The real world is not always safe, secure, and predictable. it does not always say "please", "excuse me", or "I'm sorry". Every day we face the possibility of being thrown into situations where we will have to risk everything...

In the past, we found clever ways to build avoidance of risk into the lives or persons living with disabilities. Now we must work equally hard to help find the proper amount of risk these people have the right to take. We have learned that there can be healthy development in risk taking... and there can be crippling indignity in safety!

From: "Hope for the Families" By Robert Perske.

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