Independent Living is a movement, a philosophy, and a unique way of providing services to persons with disabilities and to the community.

The focus of Independent Living is that the problem lies not with
the individual but in the community’s attitudinal and architectural barriers.

It is the aim of Independent Living to remove the barriers that prevent inclusion of persons with disabilities in all aspects of community and social life.

In the early 1970’s a group of students at the University of California felt that the system was not meeting the needs of people with disabilities. Most of them were people with spinal cord injuries. They did not want to be merely rehabilitated and then segregated. They demanded adequate and accessible housing, transportation, and attendant care to enable them to live in the community of their choice.

These same issues remain today. Disability activists continue to work toward social change. They work to establish laws and define policies that prevent discrimination and encourage integration. For people with disabilities, separate is not equal.

Central to the Independent Living philosophy is the affirmation that regardless of disability, people have the capacity to:

Make their own decisions;
Direct their own lives;
Live where they choose;
Gain access to all the opportunities available in their communities.

Independent Living is a philosophy that challenges the social attitudes and physical barriers that stigmatize and exclude people with disabilities from the community.

Better than anyone else, people with disabilities know what they want and what services they need to achieve their goals. Therefore, all Independent Living Services are:

Consumer Controlled: directed, managed, and staffed to a substantial degree by qualified persons with disabilities;

Community Based: located within the community in which the consumers reside, not in large institutions; and

Community Responsive: designed to address the disability-related needs of a specific community by identifying service gaps and barriers that limit the independence of people in that community.