Cerrie Burnell is a presenter on the UK’s children channel CBeebies, a BBC channel. Cerrie’s favourite game is Twister, and she likes The Faraway Tree. However, and I hadn’t noticed this despite seeing her on television, she only has one arm. Others did notice, and they are horrified. They think she is scaring their children.
Sensible support has come the BBC’s way.
John Knight, of charity Leonard Cheshire Disability, said: ‘Disabled people experience disadvantage and discrimination like this every day, largely through ignorance. This needs to change.
‘Understanding disability all comes down to familiarity. The bottom line is that seeing disabled people on television should be the norm, not the exception.’
Ian Macrae, Editor of Disability Now, said: ‘The views of these parents are gob-smacking.
‘One of the points of having presenters like Cerrie front and centre is that, the more it happens, the less likely children are to grow up with these sorts of limiting and outmoded attitudes.’
