Geoff Adams-Spink BBC News Online disability affairs reporter

The Disability Rights Commission is urging the government to guarantee disabled people the right to live independently, rather than being forced into institutional care.

For many people it's a question of freedom

Speaking at a public debate to highlight concerns over the lack of support for disabled people to live in the community, DRC Chairman Bert Massie said that too often they had their freedom unfairly restricted.

"Even prisoners are allowed out on parole," he said.

In the late seventies, John Evans spent three and a half years in institutional care following a spinal injury.

"There was no community support and I didn't want my family to support me," he told BBC News Online

"My parents were ageing and I didn't want them to take on the extra pressure of having to care for me, and I didn't have enough money to buy in private care."

Mr Evans said living in a care home gave him no control over things which most people take for granted.

"Your privacy is often not respected, you have to have food you don't choose to eat at times when you don't want it, you have to get up and go to bed at times when you don't want to - personally I saw this as an infringement of my human rights."

John Evans fought hard to live independently

He fought with his local authority and eventually persuaded them that the money spent on his care could be used to provide assistance for him at home.

Now he employs a team of personal assistants to provide round the clock support.

A question of attitude

"The biggest barrier to achieving this is, unfortunately, an attitudinal one," said DRC commissioner Jane Campbell.

"We still see severely disabled people as needing to be cared for rather than people who can take control.

"We're seen as 'vulnerable' and assessed in terms of risk rather than active citizens who want to participate."

According to Dr Campbell - who chairs the Social Care Institute for Excellence - social services need to take a much wider view of the benefits of providing care than simply concentrating on servicing people's bodily needs.

"We're assessed on how many times we go to the toilet, when we need feeding and when we need to be put to bed.

"All they see is high support needs - 24-hour needs - in terms of just cost, rather than looking at what the person will then give back to the community."

Thinking on how best to provide care has shifted in recent years, but social services departments often cite cost as the reason for favouring an institutional approach.

When there are locks on the door - that's when it contravenes your human rights Jane Campbell, DRC

The DRC points out that there is no legal protection against disabled people being forced to live in institutional care against their wishes.

But a recent supreme court ruling in the USA has inspired campaigners who want the issue to be seen in terms of human rights.

In the 'Olmstead case', the court ruled that the unjustified isolation or segregation of disabled people through institutionalisation was a form of unlawful discrimination.

The court also said that the US government had an obligation to provide funding to keep people out of institutions.

New broom

A new body is about to assume responsibility for overseeing care provision in England.

Denise Platt, who chairs the Commission for Social Care Inspection, believes that her organisation will be able to make a difference.

"People who use care services will be at the centre of what we do," she said.

The CSCI will be able to instruct social services to improve provision and will have the power to close down private sector providers.

Jane Campbell links care to human rights

And it will be able to comment on government policy - including spending levels - and can recommend that ministers take appropriate action.

For Jane Campbell, it is a question of people making informed choices.

"Some people will choose to live connectedly, and I have no problem with that.