Research & evaluation
Independent Living as a state of mind
by Gerben DeJong
This study should be viewed as a point of departure
for future research on IL issues. One of its central arguments has been
that Independent Living offers a perspective that is unique to the analysis
of disability issues and outcomes. Until now, the field of disability policy
and research for physically impaired persons has been largely confined to
the disabled person's limitations. The traditional emphasis on one-to-one
clinical practice has tended to exclude disciplines from outside the rehabilitation
professions. By broadening the problem of disability to include a wide variety
of environmental variables, IL can open the field of disability policy and
research to other disciplines - law, architecture, economics, and policy
research.
It is persons with disabilities who must ultimately set the terms for research
and debate on disability policy issues. At the core of all disability research
and policy are certain assumptions about disability and its nature than
can only be validated by persons with disabilities. Without this check,
these basic assumptions may be adjusted, if not twisted, to suit professional
self-interest, economic constraints, and pre-existing theoretical biases.
The IL movement is the clearest statement available about how disabled persons
want to be viewed in American society - not as passive victims needing constant
professional intervention, but as self-directed individuals seeking to remove
environmental barriers that prevent their full participation in community
life. Thus, Independent Living should be viewed not merely as a social movement,
but also as a state of mind that should become deeply rooted in our basic
understanding of disability issues.