Crippen Cartoons cartoons at the cutting edge of disability

Photograph of Vic Finklestein 2011

Having been out of things for most of the last 12 months I was saddened to hear that the political activist and god-father of the disabled people’s movement Vic Finkelstein had recently died aged 73.

Originally deported from South Africa in the 60’s for his support of the anti-apartheid movement, Vic was the main architect of ‘The Fundamental Principles of Disability’, published in 1975, which argued that the problems faced by disabled people were caused by society’s failure to take account of their needs, not by their impairments.

In 1972 when Paul Hunt wrote his now famous letter to the Guardian, calling for a radical new disability organisation to be formed, Vic eagerly got involved along with other politically active disabled people in the UK.

It was the resulting organisation, called the Union of the Physically Impaired Against Segregation, that published ‘The Fundamental Principles of Disability’. Not only was Vic a key participant in the discussions that produced this document, but he was the main drafter of it.

He was also prominent in setting up the BritishCouncil of Organisations of Disabled People in 1981 and became its first chair. In the same year he represented Britain at the first world congress, established by Disabled Peoples’ International.

‘To deny or not to deny disability’ by Vic Finkelsteinhas been hugely influential to countless numbers of both disabled and non disabled people new to the Social Model. Both simple and profound, it shows how that it is society that creates the barriers, and not our ‘defective’ minds and bodies, as the Medical Model would have us believe.

Vic was also instrumental in setting up the first Open University Disability Study courses, working with Colin Barnes and others at Leeds University.

My own memories of Vic are based around the comments he used to send me whenever one of my cartoons had caught his attention. Not one to mince words was our Vic and I learned a lot from him in this way. He’ll be sadly missed.

The Guardian’s obituary of Vic can be found by clicking on this link.