diff --git a/progressbar/__about__.py b/progressbar/__about__.py
index 4294f43..6832fe2 100644
--- a/progressbar/__about__.py
+++ b/progressbar/__about__.py
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 long running operations.
 '''.strip().split())
 __email__ = 'wolph@wol.ph'
-__version__ = '3.53.2'
+__version__ = '3.53.3'
 __license__ = 'BSD'
 __copyright__ = 'Copyright 2015 Rick van Hattem (Wolph)'
 __url__ = 'https://github.com/WoLpH/python-progressbar'
diff --git a/progressbar/utils.py b/progressbar/utils.py
index f1e2dd4..a9dc6f5 100644
--- a/progressbar/utils.py
+++ b/progressbar/utils.py
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 from __future__ import absolute_import
-import distutils.util
 import atexit
 import io
 import os
@@ -173,13 +172,15 @@ def env_flag(name, default=None):
     Accepts environt variables formatted as y/n, yes/no, 1/0, true/false,
     on/off, and returns it as a boolean
 
-    If the environt variable is not defined, or has an unknown value, returns
-    `default`
+    If the environment variable is not defined, or has an unknown value,
+    returns `default`
     '''
-    try:
-        return bool(distutils.util.strtobool(os.environ.get(name, '')))
-    except ValueError:
-        return default
+    v = os.getenv(name)
+    if v and v.lower() in ('y', 'yes', 't', 'true', 'on', '1'):
+        return True
+    if v and v.lower() in ('n', 'no', 'f', 'false', 'off', '0'):
+        return False
+    return default
 
 
 class WrappingIO: