A major part of the activities involved formation of community-based groups of people with different types of disabilities who worked together to identify barriers and gaps in service delivery. To address barriers, action plans were developed to educate the community and influence policymakers at all levels to change regulations and introduce barrier- removing legislation. To address gaps in services, a new method of service delivery was conceived - one which has people with disabilities determining kinds of service essential to living independently, has people with disabilities directing the delivery of these services, and has people with disabilities actually providing these services. The earliest center was formed in 1972 in Berkeley, California, soon followed that same year by centers in Boston and Houston. In 1978, following effective advocacy by people with disabilities and their supporters all over the country, federal legislation was passed that provided funding to establish independent living centers.
Today there are centers in virtually every state.
These centers can easily be distinguished from other service agencies by the extent of involvement of people with disabilities. Independent living centers have a majority of people with disabilities on their governing boards, and they hire qualified people with disabilities to fill management and service delivery positions. Disability Groups Served by Centers Centers typically serve a wide variety of disability groups, including people with mobility impairments which may be caused by spinal cord injury, amputation, neuromuscular disease, cerebral palsy, and so forth as well as people who have visual impairments, hearing impairments, mental retardation, mental illness, traumatic brain injury, and many other disability groups. The extent to which a center serves a given disability group will vary widely from center to center, dependent very much on availability and quality of services from other community service organizations, the financial resources of a center, and extent to which representatives of that disability group have chosen to be involved in the center. People running independent living centers believe very strongly that prior to initiating services to a disability group, efforts should be made to recruit representatives of that group to serve in board, staff, and advisory roles.