OUR DREAM: EQUALITY

by Duane French


	At the most recent NCIL Annual Meeting and Conference I was 
speaking with a young woman from South Dakota who said "This 
conference has had such a significant impact upon me, but because 
I don't have a disability I'm confused about what my role should 
be in independent living."  I smiled as I thought "different 
face, same experience."  

	For years those of us who work in independent living have had 
the same debate about the role of the "non-disabled" in 
independent living.  Yet, not a lot has been written about the 
issue and I firmly believe the discussion is very important.
 
	Amidst discussions of consumer control and disability pride, 
what gets lost is our dream of equality.  The only reason we want 
control of the services made available to us as people with 
disabilities is because we want to shape our own destiny, we 
don't need someone doing it for us.   That doesn't mean that we 
can't have people without disabilities at our side expressing the 
same hope, need, and desire for equality.  In fact, the more 
people without disabilities who really get our message and join 
in our struggle for equality the better.
 
	Many of us with disabilities have realized we need independent 
living centers as a vehicle to both demonstrate our skills and 
abilities and to acquire further skills or hone existing skills.  
Independent living centers are the disability rights equivalent 
to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People 
(NAACP) and/or the National Organization of Woman (NOW) in that 
it is critical for us to define our own future and dreams.  
Unlike the NAACP or NOW, independent living has the additional 
burden of distancing ourselves from appearing as a transformed 
version of sheltered workshops.  
 
	Providing services to brothers and sisters with disabilities 
has made it harder for us to be viewed in the same light as the 
NAACP or NOW.  Can you imagine NOW offering cooking classes to a 
woman, or the NAACP offering classes in picking cotton to African 
Americans?  So why do independent living centers offer 
independent living skills training and other services to people 
with disabilities?  Of course, we all know the answer to that 
question is simple, it's the money.  It would be virtually 
impossible to get the kind of financial support that we do if 
advocacy were all we were doing.   

	One reason it is possible for the NAACP and NOW to operate 
without government assistance is they have huge numbers of women 
and "blacks" who have the financial means to support their cause.  
The truth is that people with disabilities don't have the 
personal economic resources that women and "blacks" do.  The 
limited incomes of people with disabilities in this country is a 
symptom of the discrimination we encounter in employment.  So, 
independent living centers provide services along with advocacy 
to survive.  Independent living centers' commitment to hiring a 
majority of staff with disabilities has led many people without 
disabilities to believe that IL centers exist for the sole 
purpose of employing people with disabilities.  Therein lies the 
sheltered workshop equation.
 
	Having people without disabilities work in independent living 
has given credibility to our field of endeavor in the minds of 
the general public.  When people without disabilities are known 
to work in independent living it causes others without 
disabilities to think, "Well, I guess it's not just a place for 
the handicapped to work."  Even though those same people probably 
think, "Well, the non-handicapped probably run the place."  

	More importantly, working together with people without 
disabilities who share our common goal of integrating people with 
disabilities into all aspects of the community to move us closer 
to equality, serves as an effective model.  In independent 
living, modeling has been stressed amongst people with 
disabilities, and I believe it is important that we model 
integration and equality.  
 
	When I think of leaders in the disability rights movement, 
names like Marca Bristo, Justin Dart, Judy Huemann, Ed Roberts, 
Lex Frieden, Liz Savage, Evan Kemp, Bonnie O'Day, Jim Beck, David 
Levy, David Jacobson, Joy Davis, Jerry Schach, etc. come to mind, 
but so do folks like Wade Blank, Bob Michaels, Maggie Shreve, Pat 
Wright, Rick Tessandore, David Maltman, Jeff Jesse, Steve Lesko, 
Kathy Allely, Millie Ryan, etc.  From my perspective, the more 
people we get involved in our civil rights movement the closer we 
are to realizing our dream of equality.
 
	So, for all of you without disabilities who wonder like my 
friend from South Dakota what your role in independent living is, 
please know that as long as you are dedicated and committed to 
the integration and equality of all people, you play a very 
important role and your appropriate place is at our side.  For 
what I feel at the NCIL Conference goes beyond commitment and 
dedication to integration and equality, what I feel is love, and 
love will transcend all prejudice! 



French, Duane.  Our Dream:  Equality, Alaska: Alaska Center for 
Independent Living, 1994.  Used with permission