What Does It Mean To Have An Ordinary Life?

  

People often wrongly assume that self-directed support is to allow disabled people and families living with a disability to live some sort of flashy extravagant life, this couldn’t be further from the truth. The principles of self-directed support and its ethos is to allow disabled people and families to live ‘an ordinary life’. This does not mean boring or uneventful, but rather to give disabled people and families the same life as everyone else and access to the same opportunities that non-disabled people take for granted.

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This can include, but not exhaustive of

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• Access to education and employment

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• The ability to be spontaneous

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• The right to live independently in a house that suits their needs

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• To have access to support to live the life they want and not have to rely on family all the time

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• The right to access social activities and have a good social life

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• The right to have their own identity

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• Choice and control over their support

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• The right to feel as if they are not living like a robot, scheduled to times put upon them by the system and/or of the expectations of others

 

 

Does this sound extraordinary to you?