Independent Living briefly
Recent Developments at www.independentliving.org
The Institute on Independent Living recently unveiled the "Personal Assistance Network," a full-text internet-based library with documents about personal assistance for persons with extensive disabilities and related themes. To visit the library and for more information, visit the project's site at www.independentliving.org/PANetwork/index.html.
Also new on the site is Jean Parker's Radio Disability Worldwide. Parker, a well-known disability rights activist, broadcasts her programs on short wave from Costa Rica's Radio for Peace International. Now you can listen online to a number of her shows with streaming audio at www.independentliving.org/radio/index.html.
Other online services of interest to the disability community at www.independentliving.org include:
For information on these and other activities at the Institute on Independent Living, visit www.independentliving.org.
Italian Woman Wins Court Case Requiring Florence to Pay for Personal Assistants of her Choice
In Florence, Italy, a woman recently won a court case ordering the municipality of Florence to immediately provide her with enough funds to hire her own personal assistants. The May 5th decision (which may be read in Italian at http://w3.idg.fi.cnr.it/VIPDg/Indice_giurisprudenza.htm) recognized that the woman needed 24 hours of personal assistance daily in order for her to survive, and that because personal assistance is essential to her survival, it is her basic right. The court also determined that it was in her best interest to choose her own assistants. This ruling, the first of its kind in Italy, is very important to the Italian Independent Living Movement and sets a precedent for the right to live independently and choose one's own personal assistants, because it agrees with the jurisprudence of both the Constitutional Court as well as the Supreme Court in Italy.
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