Walt Disney Studios has for nearly a century featured disabled characters in its animated cartoons, from a none-too-bright Dopey to Nemo and his damaged fin.
Now a Bay Area couple has asked for one more from the media giant: a princess who has Down syndrome in common with their daughter. In the past two weeks, their Care2.com petition to persuade the Burbank studio has garnered more than 30,000 signatures from around the world.
“We love Walt Disney,” said Keston Ott-Dahl, 48, of Antioch, whose 15-month-old Delaney Skye has high-functioning Down syndrome. “When I see her mesmerized by Disney princesses, it breaks my heart to know she has no role models like herself.”
A spokeswoman for the Walt Disney Co. did not respond to a request for comment.
Ott-Dahl and her wife, Andrea, are the mothers of three children from 15 months to 9 years. Keston is an author and Down syndrome activist from Anaheim who also has two adult children.
She believes developmentally disabled kids are often bullied and looked down on by other kids.
But while Walt Disney Studios does a great job of showing right from wrong, of offering moral lessons for children, she said its last animated character with a Down-like disability was 18 years ago in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”
Her goal, Ott-Dahl said, is to urge the 91-year-old studio to create a developmentally disabled prince or princess and promote them as heroes and heroines, while teaching more able children compassion and acceptance.
The rest of the article at LA Times:
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Petition for Disney Princess with Down Syndrome
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