Online Campaign is launched to promote inclusion in popular toys

This month a petition was launched online with a simple but powerful request for Playmobil, one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of children’s toys. Created by mums, the message reads:

“Please put some fun and sparkle into disability toybox representation and help generations of kids, (both with and without disabilities), grow up with more positive attitudes to human difference!”

Granted my own childhood is little more than a distant memory by now and I’m struggling to remember any specific toys I played with, but it’s even harder to recall any that projected a positive image of disability (or even acknowledged it). I do seem to remember that Action Man’s nemesis, the villainous Dr X, was visually impaired and wore a prosthetic hand, two disabilities which apparently didn’t prevent him from getting a PhD in something (give credit where it’s due). His accomplishments in this respect however were overshadowed by his thirst for mayhem and general evilness. Hardly a role model for young children.

And so this brings us to the Toy Like Me campaign whose aim is to bring inclusion to the attention of children from a very early age. Who knows, maybe one or two parents will be positively affected also. Princesses in wheelchairs, little toy men with guide dogs, the list of possibilities goes on and on.

The founders of the campaign go on to try and impress on Playmobil the importance of helping to:

“[…]change the way kids view disability by including it in the toy box in a fun, inclusive way! Be the first to take disability out of toy hospital sets and into the fancy dress box. Shake it up a bit! Add some sparkle, a sprinkling of magic! Where are your wheelchair wizards, blind fairies, genies with hearing aids and princesses with walking frames?

There are 770,000 UK children with disabilities in the UK and more than 150 million worldwide. Yet these kids are arriving into a world where, even before they have left their mothers' laps, they are excluded or misrepresented by the very industry that exists to create their entertainment, the objects that fuel their development, the starting blocks of life: Toys!”

Please share this article wide and far to help spread the word and you too can sign the petition by clicking here.

And because our curiosity is piqued, if you know of any toys that promote inclusion, or can recall any from your childhood, please post a comment below.

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