Independent Living and Self-Determination of Women with Physical Disabilities in Bandung, Indonesia | Komardjaja | Disability Studies Quarterly

Like many other women, women with disabilities in Bandung, Indonesia, have the desire to leave the home and to work - in other words, to live independently. Independent living for women with disabilities is about "greater self-determination" and encompasses everything in their whole lives (Priestley, 2001, p. 10). Self-determined women with disabilities decide upon and strive for what they want to achieve without allowing others to interfere with the goals they have set for themselves.

This paper begins to describe the how women with physical disabilities self-determine and achieve independent living in Indonesia, a developing country. As an Indonesian woman with a mobility disability, I am more knowledgeable about lives of women with physical disabilities there. Two other women, Sari and Tini (pseudonyms), consented to participate in a research project of which this is a part. My work in Münster, Germany, during July through October 2001 has helped me to see that while some of the general problems are the same, the specific nature and solutions differ.