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Disabled Dating Tips, Advice & Articles

Independent Living -The right to be equal citizens

Independent living, above all, is what most non-disabled people take for granted – living the life you want to live –deciding what you want to do, and then having the opportunity and, if necessary, the support, to get on and do it. It’s as simple as that! But for disabled people to decide what to do may not lead to the act of doing it, or doing it may not achieve that which was wanted in the first place.

So often the disabling barriers of society – the ignorance, prejudice and oppression expressed by non disabled people, the lack of resources, the rigidity of organisational structures, and much more – exclude and debar, or at best modify their freedoms and actions. And these disabling barriers are not just unique to people with physical or mental impairments. They affect everyone disempowered and discriminated against by powerful elements in society.

Independent living is about redressing power in society for everyone, by making society more inclusive, more supportive, more enabling for all. That’s why independent living encompasses all aspects of how we live our lives – because the intelligence and contribution of disempowered people, including disabled people (eg people with a physical and/or mental impairment), cannot find full expression without challenging all the disabling barriers that have to be overcome.

If you are someone with a physical impairment and can’t get out of bed, or get around, or don’t have the support that you need to manage your situation on a day-to-day basis; if employers assume it will cost a fortune to adjust to your needs, and if having made all the effort to get a job and get to work you lose the benefits that you rely on to overcome the effect of impairment; if your parents are told that you are not a real human being, and professions of all kinds regard you as the problem that needs to be fixed and controlled: then it’s no wonder that disabled people construct an identity which builds in what they are continually being told, that they do not have the right to full and equal lives, and to achieve their full potential.