Independent Living Institute

In English

[Spanska slagord från demonstrationen]
[Franska slagord från demonstrationen]

Joe Bollard: Sista veckan i september 2003 samlades människor med funktionshinder från hela Europa i Strasbourg. Avsikten var att marschera till EU-parlamentets byggnad. Demonstrationen var en del av kampanjen för Independent Living för människor med funktionshinder och fick namnet "Strasbourg Freedom Drive", frihetsresan till Strasbourg. Aldrig tidigare hade så många människor med funktionshinder slutit upp för en manifestation utanför EU-parlamentet

''Close your eyes and dial your home phone number,'' says Gregg Vanderheiden, holding out a cardboard mock-up of a typical cellular phone.

His interviewer obliges. But when she opens her eyes, she sees she made a mess of it, punching the phone's program keys instead of digits.

''Try again,'' Vanderheiden says, handing over another cardboard phone.

This one has a raised nib on the 5 key and ridges surrounding the digits, and her fingers trace the pattern smoothly.

''Now, every key has a tactile clue and you can dial with confidence,'' he explains.

by Art Campos
Bee Staff Writer, May 13, 1993, Davis, California

John Hessler's spirit could have been destroyed along with his spinal cord that day in 1957 when he dove into a swimming hole. But the 6-foot-7 inch Hessler wasn't one who wanted to spend the rest of his life in hospitals or sitting in a wheelchair at home.

He went on to help revolutionize the nation's attitudes toward disabled people - first by entering the University of California, Berkeley, and later by helping create the Center for Independent Living, a program now run in 27 cities.

Paper delivered at the Disability and Society Conference Autumn 1996

by Jane Campbell

It's time to talk about death. Not only the sad and unexpected deaths of our heroes, role models and friends like Ed Roberts, Irv Zola, or others of the currently aging crip generation, but the messy reality of living with disabling conditions that lead to the inexorable reality of life's end.

Two years ago we entered a very quiet Tucson, Arizona house. A hospital bed dominated the living room. On it lay a gaunt, dying man. Steve knew him only as Lew, the partner of Lillian's friend, Dan. We spent a couple of hours with Lew and Dan and then went on about our lives. Days later Lew was dead--another casualty of the AIDS virus.

"Friday, April 25th, 1997, a ceremony in downtown Berkeley commemorated the 25th anniversary of the first curb ramp for the disabled. "It's the slab of concrete heard round the world," according to Gerald Baptiste, Associate Director of Berkeley's Center for Independent Living, noting that the curb ramp is believed to be the predecessor of millions of similar ramps that have been built throughout the world to enable wheelchair users to utilize sidewalks, businesses, parks and other public facilities."

Americans learn from a very early age that our nation began with certain inalienable rights, including the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Is this reality or is this rhetoric?

by: Steven E. Brown, Fall 1998

I lie here in my universe of the mat, my bed. I always have been here lying in my universe forever, forever. My mat, my pillow, my sheet, my blanket...for countless force-fed meals, enemas, baths, shaves, haircuts, pissed-on sheets...many many harsh-lighted days, many, many semi-dark nights. Outside my universe there are bony fingers, blotch-skin creatures. Sometimes they invaded my universe...the sickly-sweet smelling ones. They "take care of me"...they handle me like they handle my pillow.

Frank Moore, an underground performance artist from Berkeley, California, who has significant cerebral palsy and for much of his life has been labeled non-verbal, is a beacon of possibilities in life and art.

by Steven E. Brown
Institute on Disability Culture

PDF (157 KB)

They thought we'd keep on smiling for years to come
They thought we'd just be helpless and mild
Without our own opinion they could just cash in on
Their image of the crippled child.

But Timmy and Tammy are rebelling
Their Easter seals have come unglued
They won't be apathetic; they refuse to look pathetic
They're changing their point of view.
They're poster kids no more,
Poster kids no more!