Welcome to the Peer Training Series. This module explores the history and philosophy of rights and independent living.

In this module, participants will understand philosophies key to the disability rights and independent living movements including abelism, consumer control, dignity or risk, empowerment, independent living, learned helplessness, , people first language, person centered planning, self-determination, the settings rule strength-based approaches, universal access and design and voice and choice. We will discuss models of disability, and you will have a clearer understanding of your role within the broader disability rights and independent living movements.

The first topic that we are going to explore is . Ableism is the against people with , including the expression of hate for people with disabilities, denial of access, rejection of people with disabilities for housing and jobs, institutionalized discrimination in the form of benefits systems designed to keep people with disabilities in poverty, etc. We see this a lot with, for example, landlords refusing to rent to people who receive section 8 or other government assistance. This is a form of discrimination against people with disabilities.

Consumer control: this is the idea that people with disabilities are the best experts on their own needs, having crucial and valuable insight to contribute and deserving of equal opportunity to decide how to live, work and play in their communities, particularly in reference to services that powerfully affect their day to day lives and access to independence. This whole notion that we need to take responsibility and that we decide, we are the driving force behind how we live, learn and earn in our communities.

One of my favorite quotes is "We have learned that there can be healthy development in risk taking and there can be crippling indignity in safety. This was written in the ILRU back in 2004. That sums up dignity of choice quite nicely. So means making choices about new experiences and possibilities. The concept of dignity of risk is critical to human development. We grow by making choices even if sometimes the results are not what we intended. We learn by success as well as failures if individuals make choices and try different activities, there potential to live a productive, self-determined life is significantly enhanced. In order to support this we must understand that taking risks is part of our lives and discussion of risks and rewards as well as making contingency plans are also important aspects of this concept. Participants need to be able to make their own choices. This is what MFP attempts to do. By transitioning residents to community based settings we allow dignity of risk and permit people to live independent lives in the least restrictive and most integrated settings possible. In summary dignity of risk allows us to make choices about our new experiences and possibilities, just like anybody else. Equal opportunity in choice. We are learning by successes and failure and then as peers we are showing that we have taken dignity of risk and empower MFP participants to make their own choices.

Empowerment, we are not disabled, society disables us, right? The way we build buildings, a building might be built with stairs, well let's relook at this and explore the possibility of well what if it was built with ramps, then our conditions that make us disabled might not even be valid because the building is accessible and we can participate. So empowerment is about discovering the power you have within yourself and using it to take control of your life. Empowerment is building confidence and self-esteem. When you believe in yourself, your true power is unleashed and the possibilities are endless. Even though it helps to have people around who believe in you so that you have support when things get hard, you have to find your inner strength to be truly empowered. People can tell you that you are doing a good job or that you are smart but you have to believe it. People can tell you negative things but if you believe in yourself then it is easier to ignore those quote unquote haters and stay focused on your goals. You can promote empowerment and enable participants to feel a sense of belonging in a community. Remember, it's not just that we belong in the community, but we need to work toward being members of the community. We can empower people by helping them learn and master skills and tasks and then feeling invested in the outcomes of their lives, promoting volunteerism, giving the gift of time, giving back to your community. Utilizing their expertise from their personal experiences within institutions to create change and speaking up and speaking out so that you have voice and choice in your life planning.

Equal opportunity. Equal opportunity is the belief that opportunity should be given to people based on the ability to do a job, to contribute to a project or to make decisions. It is not based on disability or anything else that may make one group of people different from another. Equal opportunity embraces the mantra "nothing about us without us." As people with disabilities, we still have to advocate for equal opportunity. Often, people think they know what we are able to do without getting to know us or directly asking. It's up to us to point this out. We need to be included, share our perspectives and advocate for the rights and opportunities that we all know we deserve. Nothing about us without us. That's central to the disability rights and independent living movements.

Alright, the independent living movement. People with disabilities have a very long history. Disability goes hand in hand with the evolution of humans. Not too long ago, however, in the 1960s, the independent living movement moved into the spotlight of society and civil rights took center stage. People with disabilities took to the streets to make sure the world knew they had the right to lead their own lives. Up until this point most people with disabilities were kept out of their communities. We relied very heavily on sheltering people inside their homes with their families or if a family couldn't take care of someone, in institutions. The independent living movement raised awareness about people with disabilities and their ability to make their own choices. With this in mind Centers for Independent Living were created in the 1970s to support people with disabilities as they emerged from the shadows of society to become fully active participants and partners in their communities. Independent living centers advocated for standards. We hear stories that we asked and required to insert ramps and widen doorways so people who use could shop for themselves rather than having a friend of family member shop for them. Independent living centers are led by and for people with disabilities they are places where people with disabilities of all ages and position in society come together to advocate for their rights. Allies dedicated to the disability rights movement also contribute to this process. Right now there are four core services within the independent living movement. Independent Living Skills Training often abbreviated as ILST, Advocacy and peer counseling and peer support and information and referral. A fifth core service is being discussed around transition and transition in this context is very broad in that it includes young people transitioning and then people transitioning out of nursing facilities as well as a couple of other items.

Learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is a state in which an individual perceives a loss of control over their environmental interactions and expected loss of control over future interactions. The effects of learned helplessness cause disturbances of motivation, cognition and emotion. The process of aging is associated with many of the losses which are both uncontrollable and can diminish a person's perception of control over daily activities. An aging individual may perceive an illusion of incompetence from external environmental cues. Expected loss of control over future events is a critical determinant of learned helplessness. All older people are vulnerable to learned helplessness. One important variable for success is an environment that supports full use of a person's capabilities. An environment that doesn't support the full use of a person's potential is the second factor that makes an institutionalized population vulnerable to learned helplessness. Admission to a nursing facility or institutional environment that publicly demonstrates that one is no longer competent and is in need to rely on others. Older people have come to perceive nursing facilities as places with little freedom and rigid rules where they would have to give up self determination and loose control over routine daily living. Older people are made vulnerable to learned helplessness because they lose some capability and many opportunities to control the significant aspects of daily living which serves as strong counterforce for physical, psychological and social decline frequently observed in the elderly. The expectation of inability to control significant aspects of daily life is a strong predictor of learned helplessness among people in institutional settings. So the main thing to take away from these slides are that learned helplessness really contributes to the deterioration of functioning and it's because we lose control over certain aspects of daily living that we then become helpless and we rely on others rather than doing things ourselves.

Peer support: Peer support is when people come together to discuss shared issues and experiences. Peer support strengthens individual choice and peer support is key to the independent living philosophy, which can help strengthen individual choice, consumer control, self-determination and independent living. The idea behind peer support is that people with disabilities have the life experience and knowledge to best assist others in learning to become more independent in their communities. The wants and needs of people with disabilities are best understood by other individuals who also understand how best to fulfill those needs. People with disabilities are experts and must take leadership in designing better solutions directing their own lives and providing peer support to maximize the empowerment and independence of others. Peers serve as role models and facilitators to help others lead meaningful lives. Peer support contributes considerably to the successful functioning and mission of independent living centers. Services are usually improved, allowing people with disabilities to take on more meaningful roles. So what does all this mean? Peer support means simply that we help each other out. As someone who is transitioned out of a long term care facility, you can help someone who wants to transition get connected to the right people. As someone providing peer support, you can help someone resolve issues around life challenges, make better choices, get and give support, listen to each other's needs and reach goals.

Person first language: from the Autistic Self Advocacy Network wrote in "The Significance of Semantics" that person first language is a debatable topic within the disability community. Many people believe in person first language, the idea that a person is a person before anything else. My label does not define me. Others, including many self advocates and their allies prefer terminology such as autistic, autistic person, autistic individual because we understand as an inherent part of an individual's identity. The same way one refers to Muslims, African Americans, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Chinese, Gifted, Athletic or Jewish. On the other hand, many parents of autistic people and professionals who work with autistic people prefer terminology such as a person with autism, people with autism or individual with ASD - that's Autism Spectrum Disorder because they do not consider autism to be part of an individual's identity and do not want their people to be identified or referred to as autistic. They want person first language that puts person before any identifier such as autism in order to emphasize the humanity of their children. This is debatable. There's also you know, my label does not define me, label jars, not people, so, person first language is the idea that a person is a person first and foremost. All other things come secondly.

In person first language, we speak of the person first, then the disability. And we want to emphasize abilities, not limitations. Don't label a group of people by their disability. Do not say the disabled. That's bad. Instead, say people with disabilities. And don't give excessive praise or attention or talk in a different tone of voice to a person with a disability or a senior citizen. And we want to always let the person do or speak for him or herself.

Here are some examples of person first language. We want to say people or adults with disabilities instead of handicapped, disabled, . He has a cognitive disability or an intellectual or a instead of he's mentally retarded. Say "she's autistic" instead of she has autism. Now, remember a few slides back the whole description on certain communities within the disability rights movement - subcultures actually - prefer the identifier because it's inherent to self identity. He has , he has an or a developmental disability as opposed to he's downs, Mongoloid or retarded, which we should never use. She has a versus she's learned disabled. He has a he's a quadriplegic/crippled. She uses a she's confined to or wheelchair bound that's bad. He receives special ed services, he's in special ed or SPED. People without disabilities normal or healthy people. He communicates with his eyes, devices, etc as opposed to just saying is non-verbal. So we see a number of different ways that we can use person first language in our everyday speech.

ADAPT this really cool cross disability civil rights organization I'm going to read an excerpt from the History of Independent Living. Wade Blank began his lifelong struggle in civil rights activism with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Selma Alabama. It was during this period that he learned about the stark oppression which occurred against people considered to be outside the mainstream of our civilized society. By 1971 Wade was working in a nursing facility - Heritage House - trying to improve the quality of life for some of the younger residents. These efforts including taking some of the residents to a Grateful Dead concert ultimately failed. Institutional services and living arrangements were at odds with the pursuit of liberties and life with dignity. In 1974, Wade founded the Atlantis community, a model for community based consumer controlled independent living. The Atlantis community provided personal assistance services primarily under the control of the consumer within a community setting. The first consumers of the Atlantis community were some of the young residents freed from Heritage House by Wade after he had been fired. Initially Wade provided personal assistance services to 9 people by himself for no pay so that these individuals could integrate into society and live lives of liberty and dignity. In 1978 Wade and Atlantis realized that access to public transportation was a necessity of people with disabilities to live independently in the community. This was the year that Americans for Accessible Public Transit (ADAPT) was founded. Only July 5 and 6th 1978 Wade and 19 people with disabilities held a public bus hostage on the corner of Broadway and Colfax in Denver Colorado. ADAPT eventually mushroomed into the nation's first grassroots disability rights activist organization. In the spring of 1990, the Secretary of Transportation Sam Skinner finally issued regulations mandating lifts on buses. These regulations

ADAPT uses civil disobedience and direct action tactics to achieve their goals and I encourage you to learn more about ADAPT by visiting www.adapt.org.

This concludes the module The History and Philosophy of Disability Rights and Independent Living. Thank you.