Independent

 

By Marjorie Hernandez
Daily Bruin Reporter

According to the latest U.S. Census statistics released in 1997,
nearly one out of every five Americans has some level of
disability.

Thirty-three million of those people list their disabilities as
severe.

To provide assistance to some of these disabled individuals who
wish to lead an independent life, UCLA Advanced Policy Institute of
the School of Public Policy and Social Research and the Westside
Center for Independent Living have teamed up to create the Living
Independently in Los Angeles project, a new online resource for
people with disabilities.

“This project takes the independent living information and
referral concepts into the 21st century,” said Alan Toy,
project director at the Advanced Policy Institute. “With the
use of this technology, we hope to bridge the technological
barriers many disabled persons face, while making the concept of
independent living a reality.”

Launched in March of 2001, the LILA information system provides
a central informational resource for a wide range of
disabilities.

Over the next three years, LILA will receive a total of $1.5
million to build its infrastructure, including funds from the
Community Technology Foundation of California, Microsoft
Corporation and the GTE Foundation.

According to Toy, the City of Los Angeles has also approved a
line item for the LILA project in the upcoming budget to be
approved through the Department on Disability.

This collaboration of academic, private and public institutions
looks to promote accessibility and a sense of community for those
living with disabilities.

“These services are very much in demand, but it’s an
overwhelming task for those who need them to wade through all the
agencies and programs involved,” said Zev Yaroslavsky, Los
Angeles County Supervisor, in a statement. “Quick and easy
online access will empower people with disabilities to take full
advantage of the assistance available to them.”

While most sites catering to people with disabilities often only
provide information to other links, the LILA Web site targets
resources specifically within the Los Angeles area.

A key feature of the site includes the geographic information
system which allows users to locate the nearest services and
recreation sites from its database.

The LILA project also calls for people with disabilities, their
families and advocates to actively participate in creating the data
or assets for the site.

For example, users who may know of a wheelchair repair shop in a
particular area in the city may add this information by using an
“add” template feature found on the Web site. The
information is then checked for accuracy and entered into the
mapping program.

Toy, who also uses a wheelchair because of having developed
polio as a child, said he hoped LILA will bring together people
with disabilities through its peer-driven concept.

“I’m really hopeful the use of this technology will
move that philosophy of independent living a lot faster and deeper
in terms of its potential for advocacy and for creating a
community,” Toy said. “This technology will allow us to
become more effective in advocacy efforts in terms of getting news
out and coalescing as a community around issues, events and
activities.”

For first-year social work graduate student Melanie Benn, the
LILA site has been an invaluable source.

Despite an attack of bacterial meningiococal meningitis at age
18 that left her a quadrilateral amputee, Benn continues to
participate in sports such as swimming. LILA features sports and
recreation links have helped Benn continue her active
lifestyle.

A San Diego native new to the Los Angeles area, Benn has also
used LILA to gather housing information.

“Every student knows how challenging school can be, but a
student with a disability, the challenges are tenfold,” Benn
said. “It’s very reassuring that you have a network of
support. The university supporting sites like this closes the gap
between what’s out there for a student with a disability and
how they can access this.”

According to John Whitbread, project manager of LILA for the
Westside Center for Independent Living, about 600 users have logged
onto the site since its launch.

Although the site specifically targets resources in the Los
Angeles area, the special features have attracted Web surfers
throughout the country, he said.

At UCLA, coordinators hope to use LILA as a model for other
projects and will attend conferences throughout the country to
present their findings and help bridge the technological gap for
those with living with disabilities.

“The whole concept when we created this site was that if
you can do this in L.A., you can probably do it everywhere,”
Toy said.

  BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Alan
Toy, project director of the UCLA Advanced Policy
Institute, works on his computer while looking at the Living
Independently in Los Angeles Web site. The LILA project serves as
an extension of UCLA’s commitment to bring accessibility to
students, faculty, staff and the surrounding community.

Voted one of the most disabled-friendly campuses in the nation,
UCLA’s rich history in providing this environment stems from
the 1940s and ’50s with the influx of paraplegic veterans who
began to attend the university, according to Doug Martin, special
assistant to the chancellor.

Martin, a UCLA alumnus who uses a wheelchair because of polio,
decided to attend UCLA for its favorable climate and services
offered for students with disabilities.

“A wheelchair user was not an oddity on campus, but in
many other universities they really didn’t know what to do
with wheelchair users because they couldn’t get in and out of
buildings, and the climate was pretty harsh,” Martin
said.

Now serving as the special assistant to the chancellor and
coordinator for the Chancellor’s Americans with Disabilities
Act and 504 Compliance Office, Martin plays an important role in
the planning of wheelchair pathways, renovating original campus
buildings and the design of new buildings to create disabled
access.

Other tools, including UCLA’s Disabilities and Computing
Program, which provide services such as screen-reading programs and
special adaptive software, continue to open doors for disabled
students.

As for the greater Los Angeles area, LILA plans to include data
from the city that will provide detailed maps of curb cuts and
accessible pathways in buildings as well as the nearest bus stops
within the next few years, according to Whitbread.

Other assets the LILA site provides include a public forum where
users can virtually chat and share information. Recent news
concerning the disabled is regularly posted and updated on the
site.

But online programs like LILA do have their challenges.
Particularly, program coordinators are concerned about how to reach
disabled people who don’t have access to computers.

According to the Americans with Disabilities: 1997, a study done
by the U.S. Census Bureau, the poverty rate among 24- to
64-year-olds with minor disabilities is 10 percent, while the rate
is 28 percent for those with severe disabilities.

Many of these individuals may not own a computer or have access
to the Internet, Whitbread said.

But a recent proposal drafted by LILA’s coordinators for a
California endowment, may partially provide funds for more
computers for Independent Living facilities.

Despite the drawbacks, innovative technology programs such as
LILA seek to not only extend services to assist the disability
community, but also provide an outlet where people with
disabilities voice their concerns.

“It’s a brave new world of technology,” Toy
said. “There’s a lot of opportunity to create new
things and we think that we’ve created something that’s
useful and interesting.

For more information about the LILA project, visit http://lila.ucla.edu.