Disability In Children's Television

[Dreek Lass]

Over her in the United Kingdom, there are stations on television that are dedicated to airing kids shows all day and every day. Stations such as this always have presenters to break up the shows that air with other fun activities and whatnot lol. Over the years we have seen the typical white presenter evolve into black presenters, mixed presenters, Asian presenters and so on.

A few years back, there was a disabled woman that began to present on one of the stations. She had one full arm but her other arm stopped at her elbow. I am not sure if she was born this way or if she was involved in some sort of accident, but I was pleased about the fact that she was appearing for visibility. Kids are some of the cruelest being ever to exist, and if they get used to people that are different at a young age then maybe there will not be so much ignorance surrounding the subject.

So I thought that this new presenter was amazing.

fast-forward to the many parents phoning in and writing in to complain and demand that she be removed from the TV station because she was scaring their children and was a freak. I could not believe it when I heard that parents were doing this.

The TV station kept the disabled woman employed anyway, but they has a lot of pressure from parents to fire her. Do you think that this TV station was right to keep her on as an employee?

 

[lauren]

I think they were right to keep her. I agree with your viewpoint on it.

I can't believe parents would even do that. I fear they certainly won't be teaching their kids acceptance or tolerance. They'll see amputees in the world sometimes for goodness sake, it's not abominable. I'd understand if it was a graphic face wound or something but come on, half an arm is very tame. It's something that should be explained to the kids by their parents.

 

[Rawiyah]

I definitely think that they should keep her.
Parents should NOT be complaining saying, "She's a freak" or "She's scaring my kids" if that were their child, they would never say such things. In fact, they'd probably be very active in the community in trying to raise awareness of disabilities and the such.

Parents should teach their children to accept that some people don't have arms, legs, fingers, feet, etc. They should not teach kids that it's okay to be scared of them, or that it's okay to shun them. Ugh.

 

[James]

that's ridiculous that parents are calling to have her taken off :/
there are shows about talking animals for goodness sakes- things you honestly will NOT see in reality. and yet suddenly an amputee is TOO freaky? have these parents even seen boobah?

i'm proud of her, i think she's teaching children more than anyone even realises. i hope she stays long-term. it really shows how progressive they're trying to be.

 

[Dreek Lass]

that's ridiculous that parents are calling to have her taken off :/
there are shows about talking animals for goodness sakes- things you honestly will NOT see in reality. and yet suddenly an amputee is TOO freaky? have these parents even seen boobah?

i'm proud of her, i think she's teaching children more than anyone even realises. i hope she stays long-term. it really shows how progressive they're trying to be.

I am also very proud of her. She probably was already nervous about appearing on television with one arm, and probably had to fight through a lot of anxiety over it because of assuming that this is the reaction that she would have gotten, and then they just proved her right. I really can't imagine the kind of emotional turmoil that she must have gone through because of it, but on the other hand things like this have got to be done. Visibility is so important, for gay people and stuff like that too. Once people learn that people with different exteriors are more or less the same as them, then things will be a lot better.

It perhaps would have taken each parent five minutes to explain that the TV presenter had been in an accident or that some people are just born in such a way. Instead, they actually invested the time in phoning in and writing letters to complain, which says a lot in my opinion.