People Should Become Better Educated and Not Be Scared by Disabilities

PRLog (Press Release) - Mar 30, 2009 -
It has been revealed that the BBC has been receiving complaints regarding Cerrie Burnell, a presenter on the CBeebies who was born with one arm.

The campaign of complaints consisted of direct complaints to the BBC and on parenting message board.  Some of those posted on the CBeebies website were described as being so vicious that they had to be removed.  A spokesperson for the BBC said the broadcaster had received nine official complaints about Miss Burnell.  All posts and complaints were all of a very similar nature claiming that Cerrie Burnell is not suitable to appear on the digital children's channel and that she may ‘scare’ children because of her disability.  

Despite the negative outcry by certain parents, Cerrie Burnell and her colleague Alex Winters, who only recently started working on the Do and Discover and the Bedtime Hour programmes, have received numerous messages of support and many parents have expressed their desire to see a range of different presenters on CBeebies.  

Miss Burnell who admitted she was hurt by the comments, called her critics ‘small minded’ and that their remarks were ‘terrible’.  Some of the messages left by angry parents claimed that they were being forced to discuss difficult issues with their young children before they were ready.  Cerrie went on to add that 'It can only be a good thing that parents are using me as a chance to talk about disability with their children’ and ‘it just goes to show how important it is to have positive disabled role models on CBeebies and television in general.’

Disability groups have been outraged by the comments and 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.  He then added; ‘Understanding disability all comes down to familiarity. The bottom line is that seeing disabled people on television should be the norm, not the exception.’

It’s true that although the disabled already have to deal with the difficulties their impairment, they also have to deal with a lot of social difficulties and discrimination.  Financial problems are also another negative aspect that many disabled people have to face and people with less money are less able to pay for the likes of home adaptations, mobility products and additional care if it is required.

Although change is slow, attitudes toward disabilities are altering as is the market for easier living solutions.  As a result of this, costs are coming down which is enabling those on lower incomes to be able to purchase products that make day to day living easier and enhance their ability to carry out routine tasks.

Reference:

dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1152466/One-armed-presenter-scaring-children-parents-tell-BBC.html



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