 The following video contains interviews with real people with disabilities. The words you will hear are their own. Hello, I'm Richard DeVelder, Chairman of the State Independent Living Council, and Executive Director of the Del Macintosh Center, located in Orange County. Silk is pleased to present to you this video on independent living. In the video, you will see interviews of persons with disabilities sharing their experiences and views on living independently in the community. We hope you enjoy this presentation. Independent living means different things to different people. It may mean living in your own apartment, doing your own thing every day, maybe with assistance, maybe just with someone checking in on you every now and then. It also may mean living in your family home, or living in a co-op type of environment with other people. So there's a variety of ways that people can live independently. It means that they can choose whether or not they want to work. They can choose whether or not they want to live in their own apartment. They can choose whether they want to marry or live with someone else. They can choose higher education, or they can choose to go to work. It just means choice is really the bottom line. The value of independent living is knowing that there's support out there. Without the ability to live independently, there is very little dignity in life. I need to be able to take my kid to the zoo as I did today. If I don't have a job, if I don't have the ability to go skiing, to hike in the summer in the beautiful Sierra Nevada's, to raise my children, then my life means very little. Today, however, people with disabilities can do almost anything they put their minds to. It's true that it isn't easy to get a job, and the odds are sometimes stacked against us. But if we continue to strive and continue to work, people without disabilities will change their attitudes and our lives will become better, and we will have more dignity, more hope, and more happiness as the years go by. Living independently means a lot of things. You have your own place to stay, of course, and you have control, cool, to high, and fire, and what's on the company's house to help you, such as home care tenants. When you go to school, to be a volunteer, or to do business, I think the sky is the limit. As we grow older, we really have to expect that we will have some kind of disability. You don't get disabled, or you don't get feeble, or you don't get all this altogether in one day. Things come up slowly, and as you notice them, I feel you really should sit back and think and see how else you can still enrich your life. I find that you have to be very, very independent, and you have to learn, which was very difficult for me in the beginning, to ask for help. You know, when you have always done everything yourself, it's amazing that you should be so shy, but I finally got over that also. Well, to me, my independence is my freedom. It's my ability to choose what I'm going to do today, tomorrow, next week, next year. You know, I am in control of my destiny, and I can make the choices that I want to make, and that's a really powerful thing, you know? I might need a lot of help to get there, but everyone does. I think this is a very exciting time for people with disabilities, because in the last ten years with the ADA being passed, there are more laws that protect people with disabilities, and I think we're seeing a change even in the attitudes of people with disabilities themselves, ourselves. For me, as a deaf person, independence has a lot to do with being able to communicate freely, and independence for me means I was able to use TDIs, teletalk providers for the deaf, until those were developed. I couldn't independently use the telephone, the telephone relay service was developed. That gave me more independence, more freedom to call other people and not have to, for example, bring that eye on family members or my neighbors. Living independently means different things for different people. I think when you have a non-visible disability, communicating and being able to explain and give examples is really important because people cannot see and anticipate how they might need to help you. And so I think when you are making choices, you need to consider what are within your limits and what's right for you and not worry about what other people say. Also, living independently means, to a certain degree, taking risks and not always succeeding. Nobody does anything about themselves. All of us depend upon other people to educate our children. We depend upon other people to provide a safe drinking water, safe streets, safe housing. I mean, we're a very interdependent society anyway. So part of living independently is realizing that and accepting that your interdependence is just going to be a little more obvious. Having a disability may mean that you have to be a little more creative, but there's always a way to get it done. I should never do what I've done if I had to be in some kind of medical facility. It's real important to stay independent where you're free of all that. Free of all that kind of nonsense. Because I think that if you would have to go to one of those places where you would be stripped of your dignity, not just your independence, but if it takes something out of your very soul. I don't really have a basis to compare what it's like not to have independence. Sometimes I have to convince people that I'm worthy of being afforded the opportunity to compete. I have to convince people sometimes that I am capable of being a mom and a wife and living on my own and driving my own car and just shopping and doing whatever I want to do. And being able to get all these services to become independent has been a great advantage in my life. And because of that, I'm able to have a job. I'm able to continue my education. And I have more plans for the future. It doesn't stop here. I know I can achieve my goals. The value of living independently is that I don't have someone over my shoulder like my mom saying, do you need help with this? Do you need help with that? It's myself making my own decisions and deciding whether or not they're right or wrong. Most often when I get youth with disabilities that come in my office and they're going to college next year say they ask me, how can I get out of my mom and dad's house? I don't know what to do. I want to make sure that the person that wants to be independent is making their own choices and making their decisions as to where they want to go first. Independent is a way that shows your freedom that you can do whatever you want even though you have disability that you can just do what everybody has and do what it can do. I think living independently means being able to think for yourself to act independently with other people to make your own choices. It means being a little closer to enjoying who you are and why you're here and appreciating every difference that you have. So it's kind of a mental independence that's really exciting to share with other people. I was independent before my car accident why shouldn't I be independent now? There's a whole lot more to life than looking like everybody else. There's a whole lot more to life than walking like everybody else or whatever. As I get older with a disability I'll have to become more creative, that's all. I have a strong mind as most people do and I'll just create something different a new situation, a new environment, a new reality just like a new reality has been created for me as far as becoming disabled. My disability is not the main part of me. Yes, it's an important aspect of who I am because it determines how I do things but I really think it's really important for people to understand that being visually impaired is just one part of who I am. I have many other interests besides just my disability. I feel that I'm a well-rounded individual who happens to be visually impaired. What's important to me is the ability really just to be able to get up in the morning go to work and do something that I totally love doing. In every job that I've had I've always been independent and would hopefully remain and want to remain independent. I think the importance of being independent and living in your own home certainly impacts your quality of life and well-being and the contrast between being in an institution they don't have a choice of what they eat and what time they eat and their whole routine schedule. I think persons with disabilities should have control over the choices they make in their life where they want to live, where they'd like to work the friends they make and being involved in the community. The most important thing about living on my own is the freedom I feel as I was. My independence is just being able to live on my own being able to travel by myself having the freedom to go wherever I want to go because I don't really see myself as a blind person I see myself as a person and that's the most important thing I try to get across to people in the sighted world. I say the future is bright for people who want to be independent and have a disability. Because I'm not forced to live in an institution I'm fortunate to be able to live by myself means a great deal, it means freedom to me. There are also dark days but to me I think everyone has those, disabled or not disabled and I think that tomorrow will be a better day. Independent living is about calling the shots for your own life. It's really important to stay independent and be able to choose the kind of lifestyle you want. Be proud of who you are and be proud of your body even if your body doesn't look like the person next door or you have to do things differently just be proud, you know? We're only here once. I always think my glasses still have full not that it is half empty and I think people can still live a wonderful life and just try everything possible to make it so. I feel like even though I can't do everything myself I definitely feel that I equate independence with freedom. The value of living independently is that I don't have to live by what somebody else says. I think we're in a period of time that is changing and I see the light at the end of the tunnel. The value of living independently for me it means self-worth it means survival and it means greatness. Always understand that there are options. Always know that there is support. The only thing that would stand in your way would be your attitude about your disability. If you have a positive outlook if you decide that you want to move forward you can because the services and the support is out there. To learn more about your local providers of independent living services call 866-866-Silk that's 866-866-7452 or the TTY toll free number of 866-Silk TTY or 866-7452-889