Springfield Center for Independent Living

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Check out our latest March/April Newsletter! You can access the full newsletter on our website at https://www.scil.org/news/

January 23rd, 2026

Today, on Ed Roberts Day, we honor not only the father of the Independent Living Movement, but also the quiet, relentless force who made that movement possible: Zona Roberts.

Ed Roberts changed the world by insisting on a radical idea, that disabled people belong everywhere decisions are made, that our lives are not medical problems to be managed, but human lives worthy of dignity, autonomy, and power. He did not ask for charity. He demanded justice. He did not accept access as a favor. He defined it as a right.

But no movement is born in isolation.

Behind Ed’s courage was Zona’s unwavering belief. At a time when the world told her to institutionalize her son, to lower expectations, to accept exclusion as inevitable, Zona said no. She chose love over compliance, imagination over fear, and possibility over prescription. She fought school systems, medical authorities, and social norms, not for recognition, but for her son’s right to live fully.

Zona Roberts was not simply a supportive mother. She was an architect of liberation.

Together, Ed and Zona redefined what independence means, not as isolation or self-sufficiency, but as interdependence, community, and the freedom to direct one’s own life. Their legacy lives on in every ramp built, every policy changed, every attendant hired, every disabled leader who claims their place without apology.

At the Center for Independent Living, we carry this legacy forward with humility and resolve. We are heirs to a movement that was never meant to be comfortable or polite. It was meant to be transformative. Ed taught us to challenge systems. Zona taught us to protect the human heart within that struggle.

As we face new frontiers, technology, aging, housing, climate, and economic insecurity—we do so grounded in their wisdom: nothing about us without us, and nothing without love, courage, and persistence.

On this Ed Roberts Day, we honor Ed Roberts for changing the world and Zona Roberts for believing it was possible.

Their legacy is not behind us.

It is alive in us.

Sincerely,
Dr. Victor Pineda

IMPORTANT SNAP UPDATE
The federal government is stopping SNAP ( food stamps) funding for 42 million Americans during the federal government shutdown.

Beginning at midnight on Saturday, November 1, November benefits will not be available to 1.9 million Illinoisans who rely on SNAP to buy groceries. Benefits
from months prior to November can still be used.
SNAP customers should visit snapfederalimpact. illinois. gov for the most up- to- date information and to find food locally.
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1.9 million Illinoisans will go without new food benefits starting Nov. 1.
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45% of SNAP households have children, 44% include a person with a disability, and 37% include older adults living in the home.
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Our local economies will suffer.
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SNAP supports close to 20,000 jobs in local grocery stores, farming, manufacturing, and transportation in Illinois.
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Every $ 1 invested in SNAP benefit yields an economic impact of $ 1.50 to our local communities, resulting in a $ 7.2 billion economic impact annually
to the Illinois economy.
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