Moving from Independence to Interdependence: A Conceptual Model for Better Understanding Community Participation of Centers for Independent Living Consumers

This article provides a brief historical review of disability and personal and environmental limitations to community participation. Attention is given to policies that have limited consumer choice and to the pushback from disability rights advocates. These advocates eventually started the independent living movement as a reaction to the medical model that identifies disability as a personal defect rather than an environmental limitation. The authors discuss the basic philosophy and core services of independent living, and they present a conceptual model for helping centers for independent living (CIL) consumers more fully participate in the community. This model describes a continuum from independence to interdependence approaches to providing CIL services. Finally, the authors describe current research to determine the effectiveness of these two approaches to increasing consumer community participation.