‘Blind Barbie is here’: Here comes first visually-impaired version of the doll with a cane

Mattel introduced its first visually-impaired Barbie to make the doll more inclusive. The doll has a white and red cane, sunglasses for eye protection and an eye gaze designed to face slightly upward and outward. This move was announced in a press release by the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), which partnered with Mattel.

Mattel designed the doll's clothes with tactile fabrics like a satiny blouse and a textured ruffle skirt, using brightly coloured hook fasteners for easier swapping, CNN reported.

The packaging includes braille writing. To ensure the doll is accessible and accurately represents individuals with sight loss, Mattel collaborated with charities such as the AFB and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).

“Barbie is all about joy – about discovering and understanding the world through play – and it’s wonderful to think that children with a vision impairment can now play with a Barbie that looks like them,” Debbie Miller, director of customer advice and support at the RNIB, told CNN.

Miller expressed great satisfaction with the design details of the new Barbie, including the tactile clothes, cane and sunglasses.

Barbie had been criticised for years for promoting traditional beauty standards with unrealistic doll proportions. In 2016, Mattel started creating more inclusive Barbies due to declining sales. By 2019, they introduced the Barbie Fashionistas line, featuring dolls with prosthetic limbs, hearing aids, wheelchairs and vitiligo.

‘Blind Barbie is here’

Activist Lucy Edwards, an ambassador for the doll, said on Instagram that she had only dreamed of this moment growing up. Lucy, visually impaired, shared her amazement at being so accepted that the world's most popular doll now has a visual impairment and resembles her.

“To be accepted so much that the most popular doll in the world now has a visual impairment and looks like me. I still can’t believe I’m typing this but blind Barbie is here,” she said.