Independent Living Model

Features of the Independent Living Paradigm: Self-Help, Consumer Protection, Demedicalization / Self-Care, Civil Rights, and Deinstitutionalization / Mainstreaming / Normalization

“The IL paradigm has emerged, in part, as a response to the anomaly of the severely physically disabled person. The locus of the problem is not in the individual but the environment that includes not only rehabilitation process but also teh physical environment and the social control mechanisms in society-at-large.” (1)

Gerben DeJong

• Current sociopolitical structures produce access barriers for and dependency in impaired people resulting in disability
• Consumer driven movement that fosters autonomy, self-help and the removal of societal barriers and disincentives
• Dejong, G. Independent Living Paradigm. Available Online

Not to be scared

Normal is to take care of people.