| Workshop 4 |
Are We on the Right Way to Independent Living?
Mr. Dongho Kim, Korea Polio Fundation
The Independent Living Movement was known of Korean with disabilities through the Impact of ADA in translation. The passage of ADA was an epoch-making event to not only Americans with disabilities but people with disabilities in the world. It is a well-known fact that the history of the Independent Living movement is not completed without mention of some other leaders who continue to make substantial contribution to movement and to the rights and empowerment of people with disabilities, such as Justin Dart, Liz Savage, Pat Wright, Ed Roberts, Judy Human and many others. It is said that CILs and many sefo-help organizations played prominent roles in the fight for passage of the ADA. The fact that many disability activists led fight for the passage of ADA taught us that as Martin Luther King said, through painful experience, freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed.
About the middle of the 1990' people with disabilities in Korea began to realize that they could not be caged birds any more. They were waken to the facts that they were not broken or sick, not in need of repair. Social and attitudinal barriers could be removed by changing or fixing society. All decisions must be made by people with disabilities themselves, not by the medical ore rehab professionals. Korean with disabilities saw Independent Living Movement as a liberty movement and revolution to end stigma, exclusion, inequality, and inhumanity. They all remember that only those willing to pay the price achieve human rights. Here, the brilliant history of American independent living movement comes into the picture. In 1996, the Korea Polio Foundation weighed anchor for Independent Living Movement. The Korea Polio Foundation is the first self-help organization in Korea, offers a variety of services for people with physical disabilities. The most members of the governing body consist of polio survivors who have performed distinguished services to the society and the disability community. To know more about Independent Living, the Foundation started to collect relevant materials from America and Japan. A lot of articles, publications, many other references continued to pile up, In spring, 1997, the Chungnip Polio Center, a affiliated facility of the Foundation, set up a project team for Independent Living. Tem members of the project team visited the CIL at Berkeley, the Mecca of Independent Living Movement for a week. A week was such a brief visit that they were not able to learn about IL.
But, the visit itself was the meaningful and epoch-making event. It was a glory for being an eyewitness of the historic scene. They were brainwashed and decided to be pioneers. It surely was a historic moment in terms of the departure for Independent Living Movement in Korea for the first time.
It took quite a bit time to decide where to go and what to do. One major problem was how to apply the idea of Independent Living to Korea whose tradition and culture were quite different from those of the United States. However, the conclusion was that the differences could not be an excuse for nothing to do. Finally, they set out on a journey for Independent Living.
The Korea Polio Foundation launched several Independent Living programs in the early of 1998. The major services and programs were transportation service, information service, peer counseling, and translation of materials, opening of a seminar between Korea and Japan. In the May of 1998, the Independent Living seminar of Korea and Japan was held in the Korean Polio Foundation, Seoul. It was organized with the support of the Human Care Association of Japan and in close cooperation with Korea Polio Foundation. The Japanese experiences gave an impetus to Korean with disabilities for a strong commitment and implementation of Independent Living Movement. So many people, such as people with disabilities, rehab people, specialists were the seminar. The seminar participants' with disabilities found a new meaning of rights, the rights to control and direct their own lives. This finding would direct them to liberty, independence, and even revolution. In this seminar Peer Counseling was the center of the participants' interests because they thought by virtue of their disability-related experience, people with disabilities were uniquely qualified to assist their own peers, which was rebellion against the traditional approaches of counseling. The Korea Polio Foundation is supposed to open a training program for prospective peer counselors in this fall. The Trained peer counselor will share knowledge and experiences with a consumer for the first time here in Korea. Besides the Foundation, some disability organizations joined in the promotion of the spread of the Independent Living Movement.
In 1997, the Chunjangheop (Association of Disabled Youth Movement) established a research institute of Independent Living, which focused on the application of IL to Korea. The institute published a research paper on Independent Living in the November of 1997. The Independent Living Center in Teajeon, a southeastern part of Korea, started Independent Living Skill service for mentally retarded persons.
So far, only a few people with disabilities and self-help organizations have involved in various activities for the realization of Independent Living in Korea. The major stumbling block for the successful fledgling movement is that rehab people and disability organizations do not accept a paradigm of Independent Living, the empowerment and responsibility of people with disabilities for defining and meeting their own needs. Like many other countries, rehab-people or specialists who are people without disabilities run most service agencies and disability organizations in Korea. Reports to the international disability organizations, such as DPI, WBU, confirm that Korea is one of the worst countries in which of the organizations are in the grasp of rehab or medical professionals. It is less than ten years since a very limited number of Korean with disabilities were included in relevant policy-making and planning. The most of the disability organizations do not include people with disabilities among the members of their governing body. So far, as expected, none of the disability organizations have shown their interest in the Independent Living issues. People with disabilities reasoned that the utilization of the existing organizations could not be feasible because of those organizations' exclusive against Independent Living. Therefore, the urgent task of advocates of Independent Living is to develop a number of setups to meet the increasing demand for services from people with disabilities. To make matters worse, selfishness, hegemony, favoritism especially among the non-disabled-run facilities or organizations are expected to be dominant obstacles to the path of Independent Living Movement. With no expectation of the supports from the disability organizations, the more serious problem is how to move the bureaucrats who do not see IL as the orthodox approach. Without a major grant from many levels of the government, the formation of Independent Living service organization will not be materialized. The situation seems to be formidable. But a poor state of people with disabilities doesn't let them just wait and see. A departure from the past is a supreme order.
As a realistic alternative to the situation, the Korea Polio Foundation decided to sculpture and implement Independent Living programs within the limits, 1998. At the same time, the Association will make every possible effort to scream at the government to start moving. The development of Independent Living Movement and its driving philosophy have much in common with other political and social movement in America in which civil rights and independent spirit have been well respected and honored. The history of Independent Living is closely tied to the civil right movements in America while the civil rights of people with disabilities have not been placed in the civil rights movement in Korea. The strong ties of Korean family, traditional family responsibility have been obstacles in inculcation of independent spirit and self-respect. This deep-rooted family system is the grounds of opponents who see Independent Living as an American way. Although the history differs from country to country, the universality of civil rights should not be valued differently in accordance with its peculiarity of each country. We have witnessed that some people or some countries have been fighting for the noble cause of civil rights even in the worst situation and won the triumphs of civil rights movement.
Independent Living is not a matter of choice but a matter of life and death. It is the only choice that let us not go back to the institutions and lead a dismal life as a vegetable human being. Korean with disabilities will change and fix the society and let it accept and recognize the right of people with disabilities. With their own identity, they will make Independent Living work and build Korean Independent Living model which places the highest value on the civil rights, most importantly, the rights not to be the most oppressed people with poverty, psychological slavery of "generous! Rehab-people or would-be specialists, government, politicians.
Title : International Forum on Independent Living
Publisher : Japan Council on Independent Living Centers
Date : 1998/10/20
Question & Comment to
International Forum on Independent Living
Japan Council on Independent Living Centers
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