Shakespeare was educated at Radley College, Oxfordshire, taking A-levels in English, History, and History of Artist And Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1984 to read Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic. He gained a Master of Philosophy degree from King"s College, Cambridge in 1991.
Shakespeare then lectured in sociology at the University of Sunderland from 1993 and returned to King"s College in 1995 to obtain his Doctor of Philosophy degree.
He has achondroplasia and uses a wheelchair. His father died in 1996 and Shakespeare inherited his baronetcy, but does not use the title. He is also a campaigner for disability rights, a writer on disability, genetics and bio-ethics and was the co-author of The Sexual Politics of Disability (1996 - ).
He studied political science at Cambridge University.
During his Master of Philosophy, he wrote a book about the politics of disability. He also wrote the book Disability Rights and Wrongs published by Routledge in 2006 and edited Arguing About Disability published in 2009 by Routledge.
He has worked as a research fellow at both Newcastle University and Leeds University, and has worked for the World Health Organization in Geneva. He is currently a senior lecturer in the medical faculty at the University of East Anglia.
Whilst a student, he featured in a television documentary about his restricted growth, along with his father, Sir William Geoffrey Shakespeare, a prominent medical practitioner.
As a radical student, he supported liberation movements such as feminism, anti-racism and lesbian and gay rights.
He served as a member of the Arts Council of England between 2003 and 2008.
