Independent Living (IL) is a disability rights philosophy and social movement centered on disabled people's self-determination, autonomy, and community participation. It is not about doing everything yourself without help—it's about having control over your own life and support. This page starts with IL history and principles, then explains how the IL movement operates in different countries and regions.
The Independent Living movement emerged from disabled people organizing for their own rights, not from charity or government benevolence.
Ed Roberts, a wheelchair user, wanted to attend UC Berkeley in 1962. The university said it was impossible—no accessible housing, no support services. Roberts organized other disabled students; they demanded the university make it work.
The Rolling Quads (named humorously by Roberts and friends) lived in campus dormitory with personal care attendants they hired and directed themselves. This was radical: disabled people choosing their support rather than being placed in institutions or living arrangements chosen by non-disabled professionals.
Roberts' generation proved disabled people could live in community, go to college, work, and make their own decisions about support.
504 Sit-In at the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare building in San Francisco—26 days (April-May 1977)—became pivotal moment. Over 150 disabled people occupied the building demanding implementation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (prohibiting discrimination).
The sit-in had multiple significance:
Section 504 victory led to legal framework for housing accommodations and accessibility across U.S.
First independent, disabled-led organization providing housing assistance and disability rights advocacy. Rather than being run by non-disabled professionals for disabled people, CIL was run by disabled people for disabled people.
CIL model spread: disabled people directing their own service organization, providing peer support and advocacy, centering disabled people's expertise about their own lives.
Disabled people articulated core principles of Independent Living:
Consumer control: Disabled people, not professionals, make decisions about their lives. Support services exist to support disabled people's decisions, not restrict them.
Peer support: Disabled people supporting other disabled people. Peer support more effective than professional-only models because it centers lived experience.
Cross-disability: IL centers all disabilities—physical, sensory, cognitive, psychiatric, invisible. Recognizes common experiences of oppression and support needs while respecting disability specificity.
Self-determination: Right to make decisions about own life, including mistakes. Disabled people capable of decision-making; assumption of capacity, not incapacity.
Community living: Disabled people should live in regular community (neighborhoods, towns, cities), not institutions or segregated settings.
Accessibility as right: Accessibility is prerequisite for community living. Not charity; it's enabling disabled people's participation in community.
Anti-gatekeeping: Services should be accessible to all disabled people regardless of disability type, severity, income, or other gatekeeping criteria.
Disability Justice framework, articulated by disabled organizers (Patty Berne, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Aurora Levins Morales, Eli Minbayeva, Malkia Moore, and others in Sins Invalid and beyond), evolved IL thinking:
Intersectionality: IL movement, particularly in early years, centered white disabled people. Disability Justice centers disabled people of color, disabled LGBTQ+ people, disabled immigrants, disabled Indigenous people, and multiply-marginalized disabled people.
Interdependence, not independence: IL sometimes emphasized "independence" (not needing help) which can be ableist. Disability Justice reframes: all humans are interdependent. Disabled people's interdependence is visible and valued, not shameful.
Anti-capitalism: Disability Justice connects disability rights to economic justice and anti-capitalism. Not just accessing jobs in exploitative systems, but transforming economic systems.
Collective liberation: Disability Justice emphasizes that liberation of disabled people connected to liberation of all oppressed people. Fighting ableism inseparable from fighting racism, sexism, capitalism, colonialism.
Transformative justice: Rather than punishment-based justice, Disability Justice emphasizes accountability, healing, and collective responsibility.
Crip interdependence: Disabled people creating systems of mutual support, reciprocity, and care within communities.
What does IL philosophy actually mean day-to-day?
You decide what support you need, not professionals. Example: if you're blind, you decide whether you want a guide dog, cane, human reader, screen reader software, or combination—not a rehabilitation professional prescribing what "independence" means.
You hire and direct your own support staff. Example: if you need personal care attendant, you recruit, hire, train, and fire. You set your own schedule, routines, preferences. You're the employer; attendant follows your direction.
You make mistakes and learn. Example: You choose to live in an apartment that turns out to have neighborhood noise you can't tolerate. You learn and move. That learning—and autonomy to make that choice—is IL, even though choice didn't work out.
You say no to unwanted "help." Example: If someone offers unsolicited help crossing the street, you can refuse. Your autonomy is respected; help is only provided when you request it.
CILs provide peer counseling: Peer counselors (disabled people with similar disabilities/experiences) provide support, advice, advocacy assistance. More effective than non-disabled professionals because they bring lived experience.
Disabled people mentor each other: Newer disabled people (newly disabled from injury, newly diagnosed, new to community) learn from others with lived experience navigating similar situations.
Collective problem-solving: Rather than individual therapist model, groups of disabled people problem-solve together. Example: if multiple disabled people struggling with housing search, peer support group addresses it collectively.
Solidarity and mutual aid: Disabled people supporting each other through hardship, celebrating victories, organizing collectively for change.
Accessibility is expected and required, not special accommodation. Example: Building must have accessible entrance for everyone, not as exceptional accommodation for disabled person.
Accessibility enables participation, not creates dependency. Example: Ramp enables wheelchair user's independence and community participation. It doesn't make them dependent; it makes them free.
Accessibility benefits everyone. Example: Curb cuts (wheelchair ramps at corners) were created for wheelchair users; now used by parents with strollers, elderly people with walkers, delivery workers with carts.
Choose your country or region to see how IL philosophy operates, what services and organizations exist, and how to get involved:
The U.S. is birthplace of IL movement. Robust IL infrastructure exists, though funding and implementation variable.
National network: 403 CILs nationwide, coordinated through NCIL (National Council on Independent Living). CILs provide:
Find your CIL: ncil.org or ilru.org/projects/cil-net. Call them—services are free.
Medicaid and other government funding: Most CILs receive funding through state Medicaid, vocational rehabilitation, or other government programs. This enables free services to disabled people.
Core IL services: Most CILs provide IL core services (peer counseling, independent living skills training, advocacy) free to eligible disabled people. Eligibility usually very broad—most disabled people qualify.
Additional services: Some CILs provide housing, employment training, equipment, adaptive technology, depending on funding and local need.
Consumer control: CILs governed by boards that are 50%+ disabled people. Disabled people directing organization; non-disabled people support but don't control.
Peer support and staffing: CILs employ disabled people (particularly peer counselors). Hiring disabled people is core principle.
Cross-disability: CILs serve all disabilities—physical, sensory, cognitive, psychiatric, invisible. No disability excluded; no gatekeeping based on disability type.
Community living focus: CILs centered on helping disabled people live in community, not institutions.
NCIL: ncil.org. National organization, resources, advocacy.
ILRU: ilru.org. Research, resources, leadership development.
Your local CIL: ncil.org directory
Disability Rights Organizations: dol.org directory (broader than IL but complementary)
ADAPT: adapt.org (IL-adjacent; focuses on deinstitutionalization and community living rights)
Canada has IL infrastructure similar to U.S., though integrated somewhat differently with provincial systems.
Independent Living Canada: ilcan.ca. Coordinates IL movement across Canada; equivalent to U.S. NCIL.
Provincial/regional CILs: Similar model to U.S.—peer-led organizations providing housing assistance, peer counseling, advocacy, community education. Specific organizations vary by province.
Find your local CIL/IL organization: ilcan.ca provides directory.
Core services similar to U.S.: peer counseling, housing assistance, advocacy, community living support.
Provincial funding: Most Canadian IL organizations receive provincial government funding, enabling free services.
Similar to U.S.: consumer control, peer support, cross-disability, community living focus.
Independent Living Canada: ilcan.ca
Provincial disability organizations: Complementary to IL; provide broader disability rights advocacy
IL movement less developed in Europe than U.S./Canada, but growing. National variations significant.
Nordic countries: Strong IL infrastructure. Sweden particularly advanced—IL philosophy embedded in disability policy since 1970s. Personal care assistance as right; disabled people controlling support.
Netherlands: Well-developed IL services integrated with broader disability support system.
Germany: IL principles increasingly integrated; personal assistance services available.
UK: IL movement present; disability rights organizations incorporate IL principles.
France, Spain, Italy: IL developing; less infrastructure than Nordic countries.
Eastern European countries: IL emerging post-2004 EU expansion. Deinstitutionalization efforts sometimes using IL principles.
ENIL: enil.eu. European-level organization coordinating IL advocacy across EU member states.
Regional IL organizations: In countries with developed IL infrastructure, regional organizations provide services similar to U.S./Canadian CILs.
Contact your national disability organization to learn about available IL services in your country. Not all EU countries have formal CIL structure, but IL principles increasingly influencing disability services.
ENIL: enil.eu
Your national disability organization: Search "[country] disabled people's organization"
UN CRPD country reports: ohchr.org (documents IL infrastructure in your country)
UK has IL history and organizations, though less formal CIL structure than U.S./Canada.
Independent Living approach: Rather than formal CIL model, UK has disability organizations incorporating IL principles.
Personal budgets and self-directed care: UK social services system increasingly allowing individuals to direct their own support services, which aligns with IL consumer control principles.
Centers for Integrated Living: Some regions have organizations using "Center for Integrated Living" name, providing similar services to CILs.
Disability Rights UK: disabilityrightsuk.org incorporates IL principles in advocacy and resources.
Local disability organizations: Many provide peer support and community living advocacy aligned with IL.
Social services personal budgets: Local councils increasingly offering individual budgets that disabled people control for support services.
Disability Rights UK: disabilityrightsuk.org
Local councils: Contact for social services and support options
Local disability organizations: Directory through Disability Rights UK
Australia has IL services partially through NDIS structure, though NDIS differs from traditional CIL model.
Self-directed care: NDIS participants can direct their own services and supports—aligns with IL consumer control principle.
Community living focus: NDIS intended to support disabled people in community (Specialist Disability Accommodation, community participation funding).
Agency and choice: NDIS framework theoretically emphasizes participant choice and control.
Disability advocacy organizations: Similar role to CILs; provide peer support, advocacy, community living assistance.
NDIS participant organizations: Some grassroots organizations of NDIS participants providing peer support.
NDIS: ndis.gov.au
State disability organizations: Search "[state] disability rights"
Disability advocacy organizations: Contact through state government
IL movement less developed globally, but emerging in many countries. Universal principles apply; infrastructure varies.
Brazil: Disability organizations increasingly incorporating IL principles; peer-led housing and support initiatives.
India: Disability movement growing; IL principles influencing community living advocacy.
South Africa: Disability organizations addressing IL and independent living principles post-apartheid.
Kenya, Uganda, Ghana: Disability organizations emerging; IL principles beginning to influence organizing.
Latin America: IL movement growing across region; regional coordination developing.
New Zealand: Disability Rights Commissioner coordinates IL services similar to CIL model.
Japan: Traditional family care models influence housing; IL movement less developed but emerging.
South Korea: Disability movement growing; IL principles influencing advocacy.
Consumer control: Disabled people directing their own lives and support.
Peer support: Disabled people supporting each other.
Community living: Disabled people participating in regular community.
Accessibility as right: Accessibility enabling participation, not charity.
Self-determination: Disabled people capable of making decisions about own lives.
Disabled Peoples' International: dpi.org (global disability organizing)
SABE International: sabeint.org (self-advocacy networks)
Your national disability organization: Most countries have one
Regional disability forums: European Disability Forum (edf-feph.org), others provide regional coordination
Regardless of where you are, Independent Living is based on:
Your life, your control: You make decisions about where to live, with whom, what support you need. Not professionals, not family, not bureaucrats—you.
Interdependence as strength: You receive support; you likely provide support to others. This is human and healthy, not shameful.
Community participation: Your life includes regular community participation—work or meaningful activity, relationships, civic engagement, recreation.
Peer wisdom: Learning from disabled people with similar experiences more valuable than professional expertise alone.
Accessibility as infrastructure: Accessibility (physical, communication, cognitive) enables your participation. It's not special accommodation; it's how society should work.
No gatekeeping: You don't need to prove anything to access support or services. Disabled people—not professionals—decide eligibility.
The shift from "independence" to "interdependence" represents profound evolution in disability thinking.
Independence myth: Belief that not needing help = valuable; needing help = dependent/burden. This is false and ableist. Everyone depends on infrastructure, other people, social systems.
Interdependence reality: All humans depend on others and infrastructure. Disabled people's interdependence is visible (you see the support), not invisible (like non-disabled people's dependence on infrastructure, healthcare, food systems, relationships).
Interdependence as strength: Supporting each other, creating mutual aid systems, building communities of care—these are human goods, not problems.
Disability Justice: Recognizes that disabled people, particularly multiply-marginalized disabled people, have expertise in interdependence and mutual aid. This expertise valuable for transforming how all of society operates.
For information on Housing Rights including your right to community living, see Housing Rights.
For Group Homes and Institutions, see Group Homes and Institutions for alternatives to institutions.
For International Housing Rights frameworks (CRPD Article 19), see International Housing Rights.
For Homelessness and Disability including Housing First, see Homelessness and Disability.
For Community and Peer Support more broadly, see Community and Peer Support.
Have Independent Living resources, country-specific information, or stories about IL organizing to contribute? Contribute to DisabilityWiki
Last updated: November 2025