Autonomy

It means one's power to make decisions. Living with autonomy  requires one to believe that he or she is capable of actively making choices to face personally or environmentally related  problems. Then, from such (good or bad) decisions, the individual take positions to transform and be responsible for effects in inter-personal, social, economic and political situations.

This is a fundamental human right that people tend to misinterpret as being the right for independence. However, even though a person may depend on someone else to achieve goals, this person may still be able to actively participate in social life as long as autonomy is preserved. This is why the Brazilian law and technical standards for accessibility assure autonomy for users of built environments.

However, autonomy and safety can become consistent and sustainable as people believe in themselves as eligible to experience equality, to enjoy social opportunities that are equivalent and compensatory to reduce individual differences. 

As someone with disability experiences own life as constantly depending on others, this situation may become untolerable, unless this passive role may be reversed occasionally into unprecedented active roles. The use of assistive technology at the level of individual range of influences may support the shift.  Dependent people may experience self-reliability and independence and, therefore, wish to exert balanced exchange to interpersonal relations. This way, dependency may lead to inter-dependency, and this is the seed of social justice.

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