Blog | Tag: Community Living

Throughout September, Disability Rights Florida shared Olmstead Voices: Stories of Choice and Community, a series featuring people with disabilities talking about what community living means in their own lives. The people who participated in Olmstead Voices had very different experiences with disability, services, and support. What connected their stories was not one particular service or one definition of independence. It was the ability to have a say in their own lives and to take part in the communities around them.

Most people rely on other people, services, systems, and technology every day. We use GPS to find our way, transportation to get where we need to go, doctors for health care, coworkers to get a job done, and family or friends for help when we need it. We rarely treat those kinds of support as proof that someone is not independent. But disability-related support is often viewed differently. A person may use personal assistance, accessible transportation, assistive technology, communication support, benefits counseling, or help with daily tasks and still be treated as though receiving support means having less independence.

People with disabilities have the right to live, work, and take part in their communities. But for decades, many were denied that right. Too often, they were placed in institutions, far from loved ones and opportunities, even when they were capable of living independently with the right support. That changed in 1999 with a landmark Supreme Court decision called Olmstead v. L.C.