Having control over one's environment is one step towards self-determined living. The freedom to choose one's lifestyle is still denied to many persons with disabilities by rehabilitational bureaucracy. Persons with disabilities often require more assistance to lead a normal lifestyle but this does not give others the right to see this assistance as an especially charitable gesture of the public and thus expect gratitude for it. When persons with disabilities are constantly being cared for, have maximum external security and whose lifestyle are to a large degree determined by others, their own initiative, self-responsibility and competence for social activity decreases. It would be better to provide information and counselling through available resources to aid them in setting up alternative lifestyles for themselves.
Personal assistance is one of the keys to a self-determined lifestyle.
There is no difference in the assistance which all people accept in order to develop and maintain their own personal lifestyle. For persons with disabilities, personal assistance is a possibility to compensate, with the help of others, for everyday things which are difficult or impossible to do on their own. Ideally, the person with disabilities should function as an employer, with all the rights and duties which this position entails. In other words, he has the competence to decide the tasks to be delegated. The word 'personal' is used to make clear that the assistance must be focused on the needs of the user rather than the care and assistance prescribed by experts.