Having worked (for more years than I care to remember!) to highlight the issues faced by those with learning disabilities I’m delighted to see the BBC and The Open University putting the spotlight on the area in this series, Nobody’s Normal.

Of course a series of five programmes can’t show every aspect of life as a person with a learning disability. But this “look through the window” offers an insight into some of the issues which those with learning disabilities, their families and carers face.

The timing of the series coincides with the launch of All About Us! a new book by Mencap (with accessible DVD), which I had the pleasure of writing, editing and compiling, in which people with learning disabilities, parents, carers, and professionals share their various personal stories and perspectives.

Between them a picture is painted of this aspect of our society – the great progress we’ve made, and the huge leap we have yet to take.

I hope that Nobody’s Normal and All About Us! help give voice to the many people we represented within them and give you an insight into the world of learning disabilities so that you make your input, small or large, into making society a better place for all of us.

Content last updated: 01/12/2006

About Brian Rix

Brian Rix – Lord Rix – was born in Yorkshire, the son of a Hull ship-owner. Before serving in the RAF during World War II, he became an actor and on demobilisation in 1947 formed his own theatre company.

For thirty years he was an actor-manager, presenting hugely popular farces on stage, as well as over seventy on BBC television and twelve on film.

Lord Rix’s involvement with the Royal Mencap Society (as it is now) began in the late 1950s. In 1980 he retired from the theatre and became Mencap’s Secretary-General, in 1988 Mencap’s Chairman and in 1998 the Society’s President.

Brian married actress Elspet Gray in 1949 and they had four children, the eldest of whom had Down’s syndrome and died last year aged 53.