ikan

Kansans who are blind or visually impaired have greater access to services to support independent living and employment as a result of major contracts awarded by the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS).

ikan represents a consortium of independent living centers, headed by Prairie Independent Resource Center, Inc (PILR) Hutchinson, that are working in 76 counties to provide provision of independent living services for persons who are age 55 and older who experience blindness or visual impairments.

The PILR consortium includes several subcontractors:  the Southeast Kansas Independent Living Center(SKIL), Parsons; the Resource Center for Independent Living(RCIL), Osage City. 

The counties this consortium serves are in Southcentral, Southeast and Western Kansas SRS Regions, as well as Shawnee and Osage counties.     ikan follows   the   independent    living philosophy and promotes the idea that everyone can learn to take more initiative and control over their own lives.  

Independent living does not mean that people with disabilities want to do everything by themselves or live in isolation. Instead, independent living means that people with disabilities demand the same choices and control in their lives that non-disabled people may have.   Centers for Independent Living were created to offer peer support and role modeling and are run and controlled by people with disabilities. 

Because of this non-institutional model, these centers are more easily able to promote the independent living philosophy.