by Kevin Burton
I was on the road playing beep baseball when the e-mail notifications about the first blind Barbie doll came pouring in. And I mean they poured in, from every quarter.
I thought, that’s a story. But then I realized, I had no idea what to think or say about it.
This is problematic for a blogger, you know, not knowing what to say.
And I still don’t, really.
So then I thought to piece together the thoughts of others, and in doing so maybe come to my own conclusions.
I have witnessed some major eruptions from the blind community on various topics over the years. Maybe I am just knocking on the wrong doors, but the response to Blind Barbie seems muted.
For instance, I see on the Facebook page for the National Federation of the Blind of New Mexico, a July 23 post about Blind Barbie with only two likes and no comments. Zero.
So New Mexico is a small state population-wise but it has been a month.
I put a message on a Facebook group called Parents of Blind Children, asking for comments on Blind Barbie and only got a few responses.
One of those responses was from a good friend and longtime beepball team mate Dan Kelley, who works as a teacher at my alma mater the Ohio State School for the Blind.
“I do not disagree with it. However I also do not think it is for everyone,” Kelley wrote. “But when I think about the values our toys can teach. Like in the 70’s there were all of these super hero toys, good over evil kind of thing. military toys to get kids cranked up for fighting for freedom. I think toys and marketing have a huge influence. I hope not as much as parents and family, but not fooling anyone.”
“I think the blind barbie can be a good introduction to having no vision or low vision, but it is what the families do with that conversation which is important,” Kelley wrote.
Here is the post that appeared on the NFB New Mexico page. It’s from the American company Mattel, keepers of the Barbie brand:
“In partnership with American Foundation for the Blind, Barbie proudly introduces the first Blind Barbie Fashionista doll, developed to authentically represent blind and low vision individuals.
This doll features an upward and outward eye gaze, sunglasses, and a cane with a marshmallow tip. Textured fabrics enhance the sensory experience, making fashion elements more accessible with easy-to-open Braille packaging, and elbow articulation for comfortable cane use, facilitating accessibility to show that we are all Barbie.”
“Have you heard about the latest Barbie? It’s the first blind Barbie Fashionista doll. It ranked as the number one selling doll on Amazon and among the hottest news releases of the week,” reads a breathless news releases from the AFB. “From the New York Times to People barbie is prompting people to talk about blindness and low vision. In its first 24 hours the blind Barbie had over two million media impressions.”
But that news cycle has faded now. So what does blind Barbie actually mean to blind people going forward?
Blind Barbie is a mostly positive thing, with some caveats, said Chloe Firth, Children and Families Officer for the Sheffield Royal Society for the Blind, speaking to the BBC.
“I think it’s an amazing thing, I think it’s so important that young people can have some representation growing up because I was born visually impaired and I never saw myself represented in media until probably adulthood,” Firth said.
“We’re not seen, we’re not represented. Having something like this will just increase that sense of identity that sense of belonging for young people.”
“Barbie is all about joy – about discovering and understanding the world through play – and it’s wonderful to think that children with a vision impairment can now play with a Barbie that looks like them,” Debbie Miller, director of customer advice and support at the Royal National Institute of Blind People told CNN.
“I love that they did this. I was planning on buying one. I showed my granddaughter and she wants one too. So I will be buying two,” wrote Christina LaBondano, my Cleveland Scrappers team mate who replied to the Facebook question.
Not everyone sees it that way.
“You can tell your blind child any doll is blind like them,” wrote Dotty Dupont, another parent responding on Facebook. “I think it’s silly and a waste of money.”
Firth said it’s important that the doll not turn into a stereotype and that her blindness is not seen as the entirety of her personality.
Firth said the doll may be good for promoting white cane use.
“Had I had that representation as a child I probably would have been more confident to use a cane,” Firth said. “I didn’t start using one until as was an adult.
Because an American company is marketing the doll, the cane Blind Barbie uses is red and white.
Firth said that In the UK, if you see someone with a red and white cane it means they are deaf and blind. So you can see how difficult it is to get everything just right and please everyone.
Here are my questions for Mattel: Do your hiring managers consider blind applicants when it comes to finding workers to manufacture the dolls, buy the raw materials for the dolls, create the marketing campaigns, etc? Do you have computer equipment accessible to the blind so they can use their skills and earn a living.
Answer those questions and I will tell you how fired up I am about Blind Barbie.
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