Our Recommitment to
The Independent Living Movement

The Independent Living movement has reached an inflection point where we must decide whether to build on our hard-won victories for self-determination, community integration, and self-leadership, or face increasing irrelevance in our disability communities and broader society. We, the undersigned, choose the former. We call on the boards and executives of Centers for Independent Living (CILs) and Statewide Independent Living Councils (SILCs) to join us in recommitting to the aims of the Independent Living movement and align those aims with the current needs and aspirations of our united disabled community.

We recognize that we work and live among many disability-adjacent communities and welcome allies who work with us to advance the philosophy and goals of Independent Living. We call on our allies to reinforce IL’s mission by explicitly supporting the following tenets in name as well as in action.

The IL movement is not just a network of organizations or a bureaucratic identity. It is a mandate, a set of values manifested through intentional practice evolving from its inception by Ed Roberts, and its statutory framework under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to the present day.  We recognize that legitimate, effective rights movements – such as those for racial justice, women’s rights, and sexual autonomy – must be led from within. The Independent Living movement is no different, requiring leadership and representation by and for disabled people. Our great historic work has paved the way for new generations of proud leaders with disabilities who have the skills, passion and lived experiences to carry us forward.  It is time for us to open our organizations to them, especially where we’ve witnessed the degradation of independent living and seen SILCs and CILs promoting segregated and subminimum-wage labor, support for institutional living, the use of guardianship and, more broadly, the de-prioritization of our collective strength.

Let us, therefore, recommit to full community integration and inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of society with the following:

• • CIVIL RIGHTS & DISABILITY JUSTICE  We commit to protecting and advancing equity and justice for all. We understand that focusing only on rights and access, while neglecting to address our peoples’ vast variety of cultural and historic oppressions, is an injustice to our community. The disability community is diverse and many members continue to be oppressed and marginalized for having identities beyond their disability. Recognizing the intersectionality of disability rights with other civil rights, we commit to building diversity, equity and access on all levels within IL leadership, policies, systems, programs, staffing, and governance, to foster and advance practices of inclusion that embrace cultural, physical, sensory and cognitive accessibility to the maximum extent possible.
  • DISABILITY LEADERSHIP AND STAFFING   Leadership for independent living and disability rights and justice must be vested in individuals with disabilities (not non-disabled family members, service providers, or other community-adjacent representatives). We commit to being disability-led and staffed. To this end:
    • We commit to ensuring that a majority of our management identifies as having a disability;
    • If a majority of our management is non-disabled, we commit to having in place an employment plan that will bring our Center to majority-disabled status within a specified timeframe;
    • We commit to filling the executive director and board president positions with individuals who proudly identify as having a disability;
    • If our leadership positions are not filled by disabled individuals, we commit to having in place a succession plan that ensures within a specified timeframe that the executive director and board president are individuals who proudly identify as having a disability.
  • CHOICE, CONTROL & COMMUNITY SUPPORTED SELF-DETERMINATION We understand that people with disabilities know what is best for themselves, that they can benefit and grow from discussing their needs, concerns and decisions with people who’ve had similar experiences. To this end we commit to supporting disabled people in having full agency over their lives. We commit to promoting the social model that sees it as society’s responsibility to ensure that all people with disabilities are able to exercise their choices and control as they see fit. Accordingly, we strongly oppose the medical model that has historically segregated and oppressed our disabled community. We commit to promoting least restrictive options for all supports, which includes advancing alternatives to guardianship to ensure the rights and well-being of people with disabilities. (Consider adopting language from The National Council on Independent Living’s “Guardianship Position Statement.”)
  • ADVOCACY It is critical to protect and advance disability-led advocacy to ensure that no other movement represents us. We commit to providing individual, systemic, long-term, and community-wide change activities to ensure that people with disabilities benefit from all that society has to offer. 
  • DEINSTITUTIONALIZATION Institutional entitlement continues to isolate our community. We commit to being unequivocal in our advocacy for community integration for people with all disabilities.
  • NON-CONFLICTED SERVICES We commit to having in place rigorous conflict of interest (COI) policies and procedures that forbid staff, board members or affiliates from supporting systems, policies, programs, or practices that are counterproductive to the IL movement, such as:
    • serving on the boards of long-term care facilities, intermediate care facilities, sheltered workshops or other segregated and financially exploitive institutions;
    • holding financial interests in these institutions or in entities that significantly invest in such institutions;
    • serving as professional guardians, conservators or surrogates for another adult;
    • delivering guardianship services or entering into partnerships with entities that provide guardianship services.
  • FINANCIAL EQUITY AND INTEGRATION We commit to advocating for pay equity for disabled people, opposing and dismantling subminimum wage and segregated workplaces. (See The National Council on Disability’s 2012 report  and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ 2020 report showing how subminimum wage impacts the civil rights of disabled people.)
  • RESPECT & EMPATHY As the only federally mandated movement that is disability-led and cross-disability, we understand the shared struggles in the fight for equity. Therefore, we commit to listening to and understanding our peers and avoiding triggering attacks within our community so we can focus on uplifting one another and, in turn, the Independent Living philosophy.