A company called Kids Like Me (www.kidslikeme.co.uk) produces inclusive educational resources, including wheelchairs for dolls, and dolls interestingly called “disability dolls”, which their catalogue has described as “dolls designed to fit the hearing aid, glasses, guide dog and cane, crutches and the leg braces”.

Sounds a bit too much like the real world doesn’t it? They’ve made toy crutches, glasses, canes, hearing aids and wheelchairs, and now they’ve got to name some doll the disability doll to fit into these aids. The dolls don’t look disabled, and like Jesus, you can take away their impairments in a moment by throwing down their crutches, removing their hearing aids etc!

Not sure that this is sending the right message to kids about the nature of impairment or the disabling barriers we face in society. In fact it is probably sending exactly the wrong message. Continue Reading