Yesterday I heard the sad news of the recent death of disability activitst and writer, Vic Finkelstein.   To those who knew him and have been touched by his work, this is a huge loss.  At present, there seem to be few indications that Vic will receive the high-profile national obituary that his reputation demands (although I hope to be proved wrong). [Update 6 Dec 2011: Mike Oliver has indicated that obituaries are planned for the Independent and Guardian]. [Update 19 Dec 2011: The Independent: Vic Finkelstein Obituary, update 22 Dec 2011: The Guardian: Vic Finkelstein Obituary].

In an attempt to make Vic’s huge contribution to disability studies and the disabled people’s movement available to a wider audience I’ve begun a wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vic_Finkelstein.  Vic was a pioneer and stalwart of the disabled people’s movement, his life story is testament to this. As Colin Barnes has stated – his contribution to disability studies was unprecedented.  This is a very basic page by no means a sufficient reflection of Vic’s life and work.  In this respect, the page would benefit greatly from other people’s contributions. Wikipedia is collaborative, so I hope that you will consider contributing to the Vic Finkelstein wikipedia entry.

You can edit the page yourself directly if you create an account with wikipedia. However, if you are not familiar with wikis, do not wish to register, or find wikipedia inaccessible (notably I had to complete a visual CAPTCHA to publish the initial page), please send text, specific edits and additional references to me directly and I will try to enter them on your behalf.  You can contribute via email to selewthwaite at gmail dot com, or by commenting below.