ILI promotes the self-determination of people with disabilities.
The Independent Living Institute (ILI) works to promote opportunities for individuals with disabilities for more personal and political power, self-determination, full participation and equality through information, education, lobby and project activities.
What is Independent Living
Independent Living is a philosophy and a movement of people with disabilities who work for self-determination, equal opportunities and self-respect. Independent Living does not mean that we want to do everything by ourselves and do not need anybody or that we want to live in isolation. Independent Living means that we demand the same choices and control in our every-day lives that our non-disabled brothers and sisters, neighbors and friends take for granted. We want to grow up in our families, go to the neighborhood school, use the same bus as our neighbors, work in jobs that are in line with our education and interests, and start families of our own.
Since we are the best experts on our needs, we need to show the solutions we want, need to be in charge of our lives, think and speak for ourselves - just as everybody else. To this end we must support and learn from each other, organize ourselves and work for political changes that lead to the legal protection of our human and civil rights.
We are profoundly ordinary people sharing the same need to feel included, recognized and loved.
As long as we regard our disabilities as tragedies, we will be pitied.
As long as we feel ashamed of who we are, our lives will be regarded as useless.
As long as we remain silent, we will be told by others what to do.
Adolf Ratzka 2005
Independent Living Institute projects and websites
Disabled Refugees Welcome (DRW) - the right to work and mutual integration.
Mutual Integration and the Right to Work (RTA) is a project run by the Independent Living Institute (ILI) and funded by the Swedish inheritance Fund.
The project is intended to build on the experiences from ILI's previous project Disabled Refugees Welcome, DRW, (2017-2020). Just as in DRW, RTA wants to contribute to an improvement of the integration process for migrants with disabilities, but in RTA access to work is in focus.
Assistanskoll is a busy website providing news, facts and numbers, analysis and advice to assistance users, their families and assistants in the selection of assistance providers. Assistanskoll keeps the public up to date with changes in legislation, case law and market developments.
Disability Rights Defenders (DRD) is a network of individuals and organizations with an interest in disability rights and disability law. The purpose of the network is equal rights and access to justice. We promote this by spreading and deepening legal expertise about disability rights among disabled people, disabled people’s organizations, lawyers and law schools for reciprocal empowerment by sharing knowledge and expertise on how to use the law as a tool. Read more about DRD and how to become part of it here..
The Disability Discrimination Reporting Service (Anmälningstjänsten)
Anmälningstjänsten helps individuals and organizations to report cases of discrimination to the Equality Ombudsman and, when appropriate, the respective municipal building authority. The service has been running for 20 years.
Completed projects (after 2010)
Article 19 as a tool
Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is about everyone's right to a self-determined life in the community regardless of functionality. The project disseminates knowledge of the convention, examines the Swedish laws and the degree of implementation compared to the international commitments that follow from the convention. The website is lagensomverktyg.se. The project was funded by the Swedish Inheritance Fund for three years and reuses the website from the Law as a Tool project (2016 - 2019) that raised awareness of disability discrimination and legal tools to prevent and redress discrimination.
Assistanstips (Personal Assistance Tips)
The PAtips website has tips, tricks and examples of assistance solutions developed by personal assistance users in Sweden and their assistants.
Fashion Freaks
Fashion Freaks, the website, is a wardrobe full of adapted basic patterns, sewing and knitting instructions, descriptions about customizing ready-made clothing and much more - all to suit wheelchair users. (2005-2007 and 2010 – 2015)
