Mike Oliver (disability advocate)

Disability
Theory and models Disability theory Ableism / Disablism Medical model Social model Other models
Education Mainstreaming Individualized Education Program (IEP) Special needs Special school Special education Learning disability
Therapy Physical Occupational Speech
Societal implications Disability rights movement Inclusion Normalization People-first language Pejorative terms Sexuality and disability Women's health
Personal assistance Unlicensed assistive personnel (ADLs) Accessible toilet Assistive technology Assisted living Mobility aid Orthotics and braces Physical accessibility Prosthetics Universal design Web accessibility
Socioeconomic assistance Social Security Disability Insurance Supplemental Security Income Ticket to Work Disability Living Allowance Disabled students allowance Disabled Persons Railcard Freedom Pass Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped Ontario Disability Support Program
Groups Organizations National Telecommuting Institute Society for Disability Studies Disabled Peoples' International (DPI) Visitability WeThe15
Parasports Special Olympics Paralympic Games Deaflympics Invictus Games
Culture Disability in the arts Disability art Disability in the media
Disability Lists
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Discrimination
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Forms Institutional Structural Statistical Taste-based
Attributes Age Caste Class Dialect Disability Genetic Hair texture Height Language Looks Mental disorder Race / Ethnicity Skin color Scientific racism Rank Sex Sexual orientation Species Size Viewpoint
Social Arophobia Acephobia Adultism Anti-albinism Anti-autism Anti-homelessness Anti-drug addicts Anti-intellectualism Anti-intersex Anti-left handedness Anti-Masonry Aporophobia Audism Biphobia Clannism Elitism Ephebiphobia Social determinants of health Social determinants of health in poverty Social determinants of mental health Fatphobia Gayphobia Gerontophobia Heterosexism HIV/AIDS stigma Homophobia Leprosy stigma Lesbophobia Discrimination against men Misandry Misogyny Nepotism Pedophobia Perpetual foreigner Pregnancy Sectarianism Supremacism White Male Transphobia Non-binary Transmisogyny Trans men Vegaphobia Xenophobia
Religious Atheism Exclusivism Baháʼí Faith Buddhism Christianity Persecution Catholicism Eastern Orthodoxy Jehovah's Witnesses LDS or Mormon post–Cold War era Falun Gong Hinduism Persecution Untouchability Islam Persecution Ahmadiyya Shi'ism Sufism Sunnism minority Muslim Judaism Persecution Neopaganism Protestantism Rastafari Sikhism Yazidism Zoroastrianism
Ethnic/national Afghan African Albanian Arab Armenian Asian France South Africa United States Assyrian Azerbaijani Black people African Americans China South Africa Bengali Bulgarian Catalan Chechen Chinese Colombian Croat Filipino Fulani Finnish Georgian Greek Haitian Hazara Hungarian Igbo Indian Indigenous people Australia Canada United States Irish Italian Japanese Jewish Antisemitism New Korean Kurdish Lithuanian Malay Māori Mexican Middle Eastern Mongolian Nigerian Pakistani Palestinians Pashtun Polish Quebec Romani Romanian Scottish Serb Slavic Somali Tatar Thai Turkish Ukrainian Uyghur Venezuelan Vietnamese Welsh
Manifestations Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric SPLC-designated list of anti-LGBTQ hate groups Anti-LGBTQ movemenet in the US Anti-trans movement in the UK Anti-Zionism Blood libel Bullying Cancel culture Capital punishment for homosexuality Compulsory sterilization Corrective rape Counter-jihad Cultural genocide Defamation Democide Disability hate crime Dog whistle Domicide Economic Education Employment Eliminationism Enemy of the people Ethnic cleansing Ethnic conflict Ethnic hatred Ethnic joke Ethnocide Excellence Forced conversion Freak show Gay bashing Gendercide Genital modification and mutilation Genocide examples Glass ceiling Hate crime LGBTQ Hate group Hate speech Homeless dumping Housing Indian rolling Kill Haole Day Lavender scare LGBTQ grooming conspiracy theory List of people killed for being transgender Lynching Mortgage Murder music Native American mascots Occupational segregation Opposition to immigration Persecution Pogrom Political repression Purge Racialization Religious persecution Religious terrorism Religious violence Religious war Scapegoating Segregation academy Sexual harassment Sex-selective abortion Slut-shaming Trans bashing Victimisation Violence against women White flight White genocide conspiracy theory Wife selling Witch hunt
Policies Age of candidacy Blood purity Blood quantum Crime of apartheid Disabilities Catholic Jewish Gender pay gap Gender roles Gerontocracy Gerrymandering Ghetto benches Internment Jewish quota Law for Protection of the Nation MSM blood donation restrictions No kid zone Numerus clausus (as religious or racial quota) One-drop rule Racial quota Racial segregation Jim Crow laws Nuremberg Laws Racial steering Redlining Same-sex marriage (laws and issues prohibiting) Segregation age racial religious sexual Social exclusion Sodomy law State atheism State religion Ugly law Voter suppression
Countermeasures Affirmative action Anti-discrimination law Anti-racism Constitutional colorblindness Cultural assimilation Cultural pluralism Diversity, equity, and inclusion Diversity training Empowerment Fat acceptance movement Feminism Fighting Discrimination Hate speech laws by country Human rights Intersex human rights LGBT rights Nonviolence Racial integration Reappropriation Self-determination Social integration Toleration
Related topics Allophilia Amatonormativity Bias Cisnormativity Civil liberties Dehumanization Diversity Multiculturalism Neurodiversity Ethnic penalty Figleaf Gender-blind Heteronormativity Historical eugenics Internalized oppression Intersectionality Masculism Medical model of disability autism Net bias Oikophobia Oppression Police brutality Political correctness Polyculturalism Power distance Prejudice Prisoner abuse Racial bias in criminal news in the United States Racism by country Racial color blindness Religious intolerance Reverse discrimination Reverse racism Second-generation gender bias Snobbery Social exclusion Social identity threat Social model of disability Social privilege Christian male white Social stigma Speciesism Stereotype threat The talk
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Michael James Hoiles Oliver^[1] (3 February 1945 – 2 March 2019)^[2] was a British sociologist, author, and disability rights activist. He was the first Professor of Disability Studies in the world, and key advocate of the social model of disability.

Early life

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Oliver was born in Chatham, and grew up in Borstal near Rochester in Kent. He attended grammar school, leaving at 16 to work as a payroll clerk. He broke his neck in 1962 while on holiday, and was treated at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. He used a wheelchair after his accident.^[3]

He returned home after a year of rehabilitation. He worked in adult education at Borstal Prison (a Young Offenders Institution now HM Prison Rochester) and then took a degree in sociology. He started his degree at the University of Reading in 1971, but the support arrangements were inadequate and he left after a few weeks. He completed his bachelor's degree at the University of Kent, followed by a master's, and a doctorate completed in 1978.^[3]

Academic career

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From 1979, he ran a course on Social Work with Disabled People at the University of Kent. He published a book on Social Work with Disabled People in 1983.^[3]

Oliver published his book on The Politics of Disablement in 1990. He became a key advocate of the social model of disability. This is the idea that much of the inconvenience and difficulty of living with a disability is not an inherent feature of the disability itself, but a failure of society to adapt to the needs of disabled people. While the distinction between "impairment" and "disability" had been made by the Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation, Oliver coined the term "social model" to describe this distinction, and popularized it. He also coined the term "Emancipatory disability studies" by which he meant that researchers must not be "parasites" but instead serve the interests of disabled people.

At the time he retired, he was Emeritus Professor of Disability Studies at the University of Greenwich.

Publications

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His major publications include:

Oliver, Michael (1990). The politics of disablement. London: Macmillan Education. ISBN 9780333432938.
Oliver, Michael (1991). Social work : disabled people and disabling environments. London: J. Kingsley Publishers. ISBN 9781853020421.
Oliver, Michael (1996). Understanding disability : from theory to practice. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan. ISBN 9780333599167.
Oliver, Michael; Barnes, Colin (2012). The new politics of disablement. Houndmills, Basingstoke New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780333945674.