PICTURE DESCRIPTION Brown haired cartoon girl with green face and hands to her mouth looking ill, stood beside a photograph of blue trainers on a shelf.
When you can’t see fine detail because your central vision is diminishing due to Macular Dystrophy, Stargardt’s Disease. You have to look very closely . Like nose to the object to try to make out what’s on there.
I’ve learnt my lesson in charity shops though this week.
Wanted to see if I could make out the logo on these blue trainers. I should have asked the person I was with.
Nose to object.
I can still smell them now.
Never again.
What has made you curl up and cringe because of sightloss?
PICTURE DESCRIPTION Long Brown haired doll wearing pink top and lilac rara. With long white cane and sunglasses placed on her head
MATTEL have made the first ever visually impaired doll or as the newspapers are putting it, ‘Blind Barbie’ doll.
This doll is the newest member of the Barbie family and will help girls and boys with sightloss feel included and seen with a doll that now represents their world.
It also brings with it a whole sense of spreading awareness about blindness that we, as bloggers & vloggers, try to get across with our posts. That blind people, as a community, are striving for inclusivity within a sighted world. For people to learn about us so we aren’t this mystery or people to be pitied. We’re just like everyone else.
The doll is available to buy now.
It’s the latest of their line which includes the first Barbie with Down’s syndrome and aims to increase representation across its range of toys.
Mattel partnered with the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) in the US, and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) in the UK to design the new doll.
Barbie’s design contains lots of features that will not only make her more accurately reflect a blind person, but also will be interesting for children who are blind or who have low vision to play with someone who is just like them.
For a child that’s just been diagnosed with sightloss, I think this doll would give the perfect opportunity to open up the conversation about what is happening to them by their parents or caregiver to help children understand and hopefully feel positively and not so fearful about sightloss.
This Barbie doll comes come with a long cane and dark glasses, and features textured clothing so children who are blind, or have low vision, can feel the outfits she’s wearing.
On the box she comes in, Barbie is spelled in Braille, which is language made of raised dots that blind people can feel to read things.
I think this is what should have been made years ago. It’s not before time.
Well done Mattel for bringing much needed inclusivity in their Barbie’s ranges. Hopefully to continue.
There’s a search facility on my website for anything that you would like details on if I’ve blogged about it. There’s 200 plus posts. Also different pages to read and counting! Since August 2019, as well as here and on Instagram.
If there’s anything you’d like me to find out about and think I haven’t covered please let me know as I’m always open to ideas and comments.
Now please take a look at the daft video I’ve made. Seems easier to do than writing these days somehow.
VIDEO DESCRIPTION Cartoon hand with blue nail varnish scrolls on a mobile phone with the contents of my website rolling by. This ends with my logo eye on the end screen with http://www.onevisionblog.com written on the bottom.
One Vision Blog 