NCD Topical Overviews - Living Independently and in the Community: Implementation Lessons from the United States

August 2, 2005

SCOPE AND PURPOSE:

This topic paper is part of a series of topic papers designed to provide brief background information on United States disability policy for use by the delegates in their deliberations on the United Nations Ad Hoc Committee on a Comprehensive and Integral International Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights and Dignity of Persons with Disabilities.

Living independently and in the community are preconditions for the enjoyment of human rights by people with disabilities and represent core values of the American disability community. Ensuring that people with disabilities have the opportunity and appropriate supports to live how they choose, where they choose, and with whom they choose is a major focus of disability advocacy in the United States, as well as in other countries around the world. Significantly, the convention on the human rights of people with disabilities, under negotiation at the United Nations, includes a draft article (Article 15), on living independently and in the community.