Philosophy

We show you the definition of the Independent living for the founder of the movement for Independent Living in Sweden - Mr Ratska:

Independent Living is a philosophy and a movement of people with disabilities who work for self-determination, equal opportunities and self-respect.

Independent Living does not mean that we want to do everything by ourselves and do not need anybody or that we want to live in isolation.

Independent Living means that we demand the same choices and control in our every-day lives that our non-disabled brothers and sisters, neighbors and friends take for granted. We want to grow up in our families, go to the neighborhood school, use the same bus as our neighbors, work in jobs that are in line with our education and interests, and start families of our own.

Since we are the best experts on our needs, we need to show the solutions we want, need to be in charge of our lives, think and speak for ourselves - just as everybody else.

To this end we must support and learn from each other, organize ourselves and work for political changes that lead to the legal protection of our human and civil rights.

We are profoundly ordinary people sharing the same need to feel included, recognized and loved.

As long as we regard our disabilities as tragedies, we will be pitied.

As long as we feel ashamed of who we are, our lives will be regarded as useless.

As long as we remain silent, we will be told by others what to do.

Adolf Ratska

All his words contain the philosophy of the movement for independent living.

More about Mr. Ratska can learn http://www.independentliving.org/

It’s a way of thinking in the sphere of disabilities, which arose in the early seventies of the twentieth century. That was the time when disabled people started provoking the society to view them in a different way. People began to see the limits and barriers which prevented disabled people from acquiring their right of equal and dignified participation in social life. This new way of thinking became popular worldwide by the name “Social approach”. It is called social not because it is practiced by the social workers. On the contrary, main participants are the disabled people themselves. The name shows the understanding that the cause of all problems which disabled people experience, lies in society. In other words, the social approach is an attempt to break the circle of the traditional attitude towards the disability which is to regard the problem only from medical point of view. The social approach provokes and offers another perspective. According to it, the disability is much more a problem of isolation from ordinary life due to the barriers in the environment.

These barriers can be architectural– for example, inaccessible public transport, pavements, stairs, lack of Braille signs or sound signals at public places; as well as social– for example, attitudes, prejudice, stereotypes and so on.

The social approach as a style of work (for example, of other disabled people associations) aims at changing the environment, the social values and practices. Another goal is to limit or remove barriers which prevent disabled people from fully taking part in public life. Using the social approach we work so that there is no discrimination on the basis of disability.

If we study the practices which the social approach suggests, we have to admit that removing the barriers for the disabled people would benefit other social groups.too. Making the environment more accessible (ramps, inclined pavements, low platforms of the buses, etc.) will facilitate the mothers with baby- carriages, elderly people and cyclists.

Besides the social, there are other approaches to disabilities. One of them is the so called “medical approach” which suggests another point of view. It supports the understanding that disabled people are incapable of adequate participation in public life because of the disability itself, and not because of the environment which is not adapted and hostile. The medical approach is focused on the body instead of seeing the person’s potentiality and capacities.

We lay a special emphasis on the fact that the social approach looks for the man’s talents – the things they know and can do, and sees the reasons for their difficulties in the environment which is not hospitable enough.