Independent Living Institute

Copyright 1993 by Laura Hershey

Orange, pink, and lavender flyers fluttered in the breeze as we handed them to any passer-by willing to take one. "Tune Out Jerry!" the flyers urged. "Boycott the Telethon!" Some two dozen of us lined up in front of the hotel shouting chants, distributing leaflets, and answering questions from the media, while the local segment of the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon broadcast from a ballroom two floors above. Though I would stay outside all afternoon, I remembered all too well the scene that was taking place inside.

Memo To: The World
From: Candace Hawkins

Report of the CIB Expert Seminar on Building Non-Handicapping Environments, Harare 1992

by Harlan Hahn, University of Southern California (1985)

Contents

Abstract

The Definition of Disability

The Medical Definition
The Economic Definition
The Socio-Political Definition

Toward a Politics of Disability: Traditions and Prospects

Summary and Conclusion

Notes

By Harlan Hahn, University of Southern California (1987)

Introduction

"Bam, bam, bam". It was late in the evening and in the silence of night the door shook with the loud knocking. I instantly guessed that this could only be the security police. My friends who had been sharing a pleasant evening suddenly seemed pale and wide-eyed, as I suppose I must have been. There was nothing to do but open the door before they broke it down. Being in a wheelchair I had long ago reckoned that if the police did decide to arrest me there was going to be no escape. So at last, like other comrades that I had read about or met, my time had come...

Paper presented at the first annual meeting
Published in DAIL No. 8 (June 1987)

1. INTRODUCTION

The background

Ten years ago, the U.S. Congress passed the 1978 amendments to the Rehabilitation Act. These Amendments included Title VII, a new grant program for Independent Living centers. Title VII was hailed as a victory for the Independent Living Movement. Today, there are approximately 200 Independent Living centers, many of which had their beginnings in the Title VII program. But with the passage of the 1978 Amendments, the Independent Living (IL) movement crossed a threshold and entered a new stage in its life cycle as a social movement.

Report of the CIB Expert Seminar on Building Non-Handicapping Environments, Budapest 1991

Contents