The University was very sorry to hear of the death of disability rights activist Professor Mike Oliver, on 2 March 2019.

Tom Sharp, on behalf of the DHM Steering group, Student Support and Wellbeing, wrote this tribute:

Professor Mike Oliver was a Kent undergraduate and studied for his PhD here, graduating in 1979. Mike then led an MA in Social Work at the University of Kent, and in 1983 wrote ‘Social Work with Disabled People’ in which he framed the Social Model of Disability. The Social Model has been used beyond the field of social work; adopted within Higher Education and across the public sector, as a method by which to challenge and improve public services. Mike modestly admitted the success of the idea went far beyond his original intentions, to become the best practice model for working with disabled people; ‘…the social model was received much more enthusiastically by disabled people because it made an immediate connection to their own experiences’ (Mike Oliver).

Mike’s activism in the 1980s contributed to pressure on the government to pass the Disability Discrimination Act in 1995. Mark Pimm of Birkbeck University comments that ‘Professor Oliver completely changed the way British people view disability, transitioning from disability being something you have because you have the impairment, to something that results from the choices society makes. By making this transition the disability movement was able to secure the resources from government and others that has done so much to improve all of our lives.’

Here at Student Support and Wellbeing, we connected with Mike in 2017 when he agreed to come out of retirement to speak at the University’s inaugural Disability History Month, giving a distinguished visitor lecture. Mike enjoyed coming back to his alma mater and returned again in November 2018, as we had made a film in recognition of his life and work, which is now available on YouTube (below). It has been an absolute pleasure to meet and work with Mike, who was always kind and generous with his time.

Anna Morell of the KCC Physical Disability Forum writes: ‘Mike was an absolute titan in our community. A pioneer, a relentless campaigner, and effectively one of the founding fathers of the Social Model of Disability. Greatly respected for his huge intelligence, his straightforwardness, and for many of us in Kent, his presence, he was a mighty force for change. He was loved, and his absence will be felt so keenly, not just in Kent, but globally’.

Our thoughts and love are with his wife Joy and family at this deeply sad time.

The University of Kent made this film on his life and work.