Distorted Ideals

The ideal of independent living for disabled people, although it has po litical cachet for a society committed to values of economic inde pendence and self-reliance, represents an over-simplified distortion of social experiences of disabled and non-disabled people alike and of complex moral questions arising out of these experiences. However, to understand ideal of independent living it is important first to ex amine what is socially constructed as the problem of dependency—and herein lie origins of what I will call the myth of independent living. The ideal of independent living can be understood as a myth in two senses—it is a goal that is unquestionably and falsely assumed to be (a) attainable, and (b) morally desirable. I will try to show that it is a myth that is commonly promoted in both of these senses through traditional right/left-wing politics as well as through Disability Rights Move ment, despite important differences within and between these posi tions. Through combining insights from social theory and political phi losophy, I will argue that understanding individual relationships and so cial relations as interdependent and symbiotic provides basis for a more accurate account of social and moral worlds we all occupy. In process, this understanding will allow for a more fully fledged cele bration of differences, including celebration of various types of interdependencies we experience that are in part shaped by differing experiences we have of disability and impairment.