Many countries have political priorities and policies that force persons with disabilities into dependency, particularly those who for their survival depend on the practical help from other persons in their daily lives. Direct payments for the purchase of personal assistance services not only constitute an efficient labor market policy instrument that stimulates domestic demand. Direct payments liberate us from dependency on family or residential institutions and enable us to take our rightful place as citizens in a democratic society.
Adolf Ratzka, Independent Living Institute and Founding Chairperson of ENIL
ENIL Strasbourg Freedom Drive Plenary Presentation September 6 2013
- The Independent Living movement paved the way: Origins of personal assistance in Sweden (page in english)
Kapitel 2 ur boken: Perspektiv på personlig assistans, Brusén Peter, Flyckt Karin (red.), Gothia Förlag 2012
Adolf Ratzka
Välviljans förtryck
Socialpolitiken styrs vanligtvis inte av dem vars liv den påverkar, utan av politiker och tjänstemän utifrån politiska hänsynstaganden och en nödvändigtvis begränsad kännedom om andra människors livsvillkor. Det gäller framför allt oss personer med omfattande funktionsnedsättningar som för vår överlevnad är beroende av andra människors praktiska insatser i det dagliga livet, exempelvis med uppstigning, påklädning, toalettbesök, duschning. Ju större vårt beroende är, desto självklarare tar sig omgivningen rätten att ha åsikter om vad vi behöver och desto mindre har vi som berörs att säga till om när det gäller hur vi vill leva våra liv och vilka samhällsinsatser vi behöver. Som resultat ser vi ofta lösningar och tjänster som Resultaten av lösningarna gör oss mer beroende av andra istället för oberoende.
Persons with the exactly the same disabilities can have completely different lives depending on where they live. In some countries there are policies and attitudes that allow us to develop and follow our interests, get education and work, meet friends, marry and have children. In other countries, people with disabilities may have to live with their parents or in institutions, with little contact with the outside world, with no or only simple work.
- Independent Living-rörelsen banade vägen (sidan på svenska)
Chapter 2 Perspectives on personal assistance, Brusén Peter, Flyckt Karin (ed.), Gothia Förlag 2012
Adolf Ratzka
Benign oppression
Social policy is rarely made by the people whose lives it affects. Rather, it is formulated based on political considerations by politicians and bureaucrats who, by necessity, have limited knowledge of the conditions of other people’s lives – especially regarding those of us with extensive disabilities who depend on other people to survive and require practical assistance with activities of daily living such as getting out of bed, dressing, personal hygiene and bathing. The greater our dependence, the more others assume they are entitled to have opinions about our needs and the less those of us affected have a say in how we want to live our lives and what social resources we need. As a result, solutions and services often make us more dependent on others rather than independent.
The October 1 2011 article Dismantle Europe's inhumane institutions in the daily newspaper Göteborgsposten urges European countries to provide people with disabilities with personal assistance and assistive devices, rather than relegating them to institutions.
According to the Swedish Members of the European Parliament at least 1.2 million people live in institutions in the EU and Turkey, which they consider to be contrary to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Keynote at the Expert Seminar
organized by the Hampshire Center for Independent Living
in Southampton, May 30 -31 1998
by Philip Mason
I am privileged and overawed to be the first speaker in this conference. A conference which is looking at the future in respect of those well known phrases 'Independent Living' and 'Direct Payments'. It is a privilege and also a responsibility because I need to strike the right note. I need to encourage but also to challenge.
So where do we start? Do we talk about the past; look at the present, and then think about the future?
We ought to do a little bit of all three and it is my job to start the ball rolling.
Interview: Regine Abadia and Ryadh Sallem
You’re listening to Radio Independent Living documenting disabled people‘s struggle for self-determination
For years Marcel Nuss has been fighting for his right to live like everybody else -, in the community and not in a residential institution. He had to fight, because he is disabled and uses a ventilator 24 hrs a day, because he needs personal assistance - and because he lives in France where people like him are still not considered to be ready for a life outside of hospital-like institutions.
Motstånd – en plikt! Ett program om politiskt motstånd och civil olydnad. 2004-04. 
Lyssna-MP3 (26 minuter, 24,4 MB). Internet publication URLs: www.independentliving.org/radio/civilolydnad2002.mp3 och www.independentliving.org/radio/civilolydnad2002.html
Intervju:
Regine Abadia och Ryadh Sallem
I åratal fick Marcel Nuss kämpa för sin rätt att leva som andra, ute i samhället istället för att vara inlåst på institution. Han fick kämpa därför att han har ett funktionshinder och använder ventilator dygnet runt, han fick kämpa för att han behöver personlig assistans - och för att han är bosatt i Frankrike där människor med dessa behov inte anses kapabla att leva utanför sjukhusliknande anstalter.