US toymaker Mattel has introduced its first-ever blind Barbie. This Barbie features eyeglasses on her head and carries a white and red cane with a marshmallow tip. In collaboration with the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), Mattel meticulously ensured every detail of the doll. To accurately represent individuals with blindness or low vision and to maintain the doll’s accessibility, her eye gaze is directed “slightly upwards and outward.”
To enable children with limited vision or blindness to feel the clothes on this Barbie doll, Mattel has included textured clothing with the doll. Additionally, Barbie has been written in Braille on the box she arrives in—a language composed of dots with edges, which helps blind people to touch and understand.
Lucy Edwards, a Broadcaster and disability activist from Birmingham, who lost her sight at the age of 17, appears in a promotion for the new doll. “I was embarrassed by my cane – but knowing Barbie had a cane would have made me feel so differently about mine and helped me feel less alone on my journey to accept and embrace my blindness,” Edwards was quoted by BBC.
In a statement to CNN, Debbie Miller of the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) said it’s great that kids with visual impairments may now play with a Barbie that looks like them.
Mattel has also collaborated with RNIB to produce a doll that authentically portrays people who are blind. In response to years of backlash over its unrealistically proportioned dolls that perpetuated traditional beauty standards, Mattel started manufacturing a more diverse range of Barbies in 2016 as sales of the beloved toy started to decline.
Three years later, the firm unveiled the Barbie Fashionistas range, which included dolls with wheelchairs, prosthetic legs, hearing aids and the skin ailment vitiligo.
Not only did Barbie debut its first blind doll in the Barbie Fashionistas 2024 series, but this year the company re-established its partnership with the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS) to present its next model— Black Barbie with Down syndrome.
Barbie and the NDSS reportedly collaborated to make sure that the Black Barbie doll embodied the qualities and interests of people with Down syndrome.
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