Sir Bert Massie

June 2009

Disability rights campaigner and Compact Commissioner, Sir Bert Massie talks about access, the government and photography

What made you choose social studies as a career?

I don’t think it was a choice – I got polio at three months old and was in hospital for five years. In the 1950s there was a pretty low expectation of what you could achieve in this condition and you were doing well if you were still alive at 16. I left school without O levels, so got private tuition as all the night-schools in Liverpool had steps and had to do my A levels at a special college in Coventry as it had suitable facilities. Once I was there it made sense to stay on and get the degree, and then I did a postgraduate social work course at Manchester. But I would have been a lousy social worker…

Author: Sir Bert Massie

Sir Bert Massie CBE is the Commissioner for the Compact and has been a disability rights campaigner for almost 40 years. He has wide experience of voluntary organisations and of working with government and governmental agencies.

From January 2000 to 2007 he was chairman of the Disability Rights Commission, now part of the recently created Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). Prior to that, he was chief executive of RADAR, the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation.

Sir Bert has been disabled since he was three months old. After living in London for almost 30 years,he now lives in the Aigburth area of Liverpool.

www.thecompact.org.uk

Click here for other articles written by Sir Bert Massie

Comments

There are no comments on this article. Be the first to comment.

Comment on this article
Email this article to a friend


Username
Password

First Person

Sir Bert Massie

What made you choose social studies as a career?

Author: Sir Bert Massie