Accepting Disabilities

As I work in a school for children with special needs, I guess I am slightly more aware than most, about people with special needs, whether they are learning or physical disabilities. I’ve written about this before (here and here) and I am quite confident that if anyone with special needs came to join my Group, we would be able to welcome them. Indeed one of my earliest memories of my time in the Cubs was that one of the other Cubs had his leg in ridged callipers all the time. He was never treated any differently from any of the other Cubs and I seem to remember he could run faster than me!

A couple of weeks ago, the BBC had a new presenter on its children’s channel CBBC. Cerrie Burnell was born without part of her right arm. This has lead to at least nine official complaints to the BBC that she was scaring toddlers! Apparently one parent wrote this on the BBC’s message boards –

I didn't want to let my children watch the filler bits on The Bedtime Hour last night because I know it would have played on my eldest daughter's mind and possibly caused sleep problems.

Some people need to join the real world! A person without part of their arm is not scary, honest!

My best friend’s Dad was born without a left hand and the first few times I met him I don’t think I even noticed! I remember asking my friend why his Dad didn't have a left hand and the reply was ‘Dunno’ & it was left at that. He never let the fact he didn’t have a left hand bother him and in fact he didn’t know what he was missing as he’d never had one. From my point of view he just lived his life and never let his lack of hand define him. As an aside, he was our Group Chairman for over 19 years.

People with disabilities are not scary and children will accept the fact that they may be slightly ‘different’ without batting an eyelid. So the parents who complained to the BBC need to grow up.