Indiana Independent Living Survey

Background on the Independent Living Survey

In 1998, the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration awarded CPPS a grant to administer a survey assessing the independent living needs of Hoosiers with disabilities.

The Indiana Independent Living Survey was a telephone survey of people with disabilities being conducted to assess the independent living needs of Hoosiers with disabilities. CPPS interviewed over 2200 people in this survey.

Independent Living is defined as the ability of people with disabilities to have choice, opportunities, and access that is equal to those of people without disabilities.  Independent living services are delivered through Centers for Independent Living (CILs).  CILs offer services such as information and referral, peer counseling, advocacy, and independent living skills training.

The five current Centers for Independent Living in Indiana are: Everybody Counts, Merrillville; League for the Blind and Disabled, Ft. Wayne; Indianapolis Resource Center for Independent Living, Indianapolis; Southern Indiana Center for Independent Living, Bedford; and Assistive Technology Training and Information, Vincennes, Indiana.

Main Findings of the Independent Living Survey

Staff of the Institute's Center for Planning and Policy Studies (CPPS) have completed publication of the findings of the Indiana Independent Living Survey. The Report of Findings and an Executive Summary were recently submitted to the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA), who sponsored the statewide survey.

Significant findings of the Survey include justification of the need for additional centers for independent living (CILs) in the state, as 51% of Indiana's citizens with disabilities do not live in a county that is served by Indiana's current CILs. Projections showed that between 142,000 - 194,000 Indiana citizens would use independent living services if they were available in their counties.

Other Survey findings include:

• There are 528,000 citizens in the state who have disabilities (an overall 9.1% rate).
• Community attitudes continue to be a barrier to full community participation of people with disabilities.
• Another barrier to community participation continues to be physical accessibility, especially from the perspective of people with physical disabilities.
• Only 13% of people with disabilities use public transportation, and of those who do, 72% have difficulties getting to places because of problems with accessibility.
• Less than 50% of working age people with disabilities are working for pay, and of these, one-third reported they had difficulty getting a better job because of their disability.

Center staff who had major responsibility for the conduct of the Survey and the reporting of its results include Vicki Pappas, John Barth, Jeffrey Chait, and Stacey May. The Center collaborated with IU's Center for Survey Research in Bloomington and the Public Opinion Lab at IUPUI to conduct the 2,234 telephone interviews.

Copies of the Report or the Executive Summary may be obtained from FSSA, Division of Disability, Aging, and Rehabilitative Services (Phone: (317) 232-1353 or 1-800-545-7763; Fax: (317) 232-6478; or e-mail: pdoane@fssa.state.in.us.)

A PowerPoint slide presentation of the Survey's Report of Findings is also available.

For more information about the project and the survey itself, call CPPS at 812/855-6508 or send e-mail to V. Pappas or J. Barth.