Independent Living Institute

Speech by Bengt Westerberg, chair of Swedish Red Cross and former Minister of Social Affairs, 2008. 22 years ago I met with Adolf Ratzka for the first time. I was then a politician, the leader of the Liberal party in Sweden, Folkpartiet and had welfare policy for disabled people high on my agenda. Adolf and Bengt Elmén, who also was present when we met in 1986 and who is present here today, told me about the social experiment they had initiated in Stockholm and some other municipalities to substitute the conventional social services provided by the local authorities with personal assistance.

Internationell konferensen i november 2008 för att fira 25 år av Independent Living i Sverige. Dokumentation från konferensen: Välkomstanförande, tal av Bengt Westerberg, Adolf Ratzka med mera.

Kerstin Nilsson, vice chair person of STIL welcomes the guests. I am honoured to welcome you to this conference to celebrate the Independent Living movement’s 25 years of existence here in Sweden. During these two days we should above all learn from each other, from our different experiences of Independent Living and how we as persons with different disabilities handle the challenges we meet on a daily basis.

edited by Jun Ishikawa and Osamu Nagase
office tel/fax +81-(0)45-503-1219

Osamu Nagase, of the Institute on Disability and Communication, and Jun Ishikawa have edited this comprehensive collection of disability studies. The following texts and authors have contributed to the book: