b1-66er: F3m, you need to have your first Barbie movie experience with a new pal...
F3mb0t: Me, to Blind Barbie: "Have you seen the Barbie movie?"
BB to me: "No, but I heard it is fabulous."
66: So bad.
The Accomplice: Hahaha. I saw that you'd replied, and I was certain it was going to be something about how bad it was that blind Barbie couldn't see Ken on the big screen
•••
b1-67er: Weird. Blind barbie is kind of interesting.
D4rw1n: I'm a fan of the blind Barbie concept
67: So my question is: should they remove all added color from blind Barbie? Make her plastic colored, whatever that is, and make the textiles whatever their natural color is? All that color is added for the people with vision. Maybe blind Barbie doesn't need all that color baggage?
66: Oooh. Heavy duty. A question that makes you ponder the inner-life/meaning of blind Barbie...
... But:
1. Is playing on the colors possibly offensive to color blind owners? (ie. "The swine at Mattel think color blind is some kind of grand disability like being Real Blind!?")
2. Should BB, therefore, focus more on texture? Pore-up her skin, por ejemplo?
67: There are people with really bad eyesight that are effectively blind. I wonder if those people have certain wavelengths that they see better? You could go that way.
66: If there's an engineering solution my brother will find it...
... and the true 'beauty' of everything here? It doesn't have to look good. Barbie is blind, afterall.
For your hard work, we'll make you a special edition
"b1-67er Colorblind Barbie"
Which will be normal production Blind Barbie, but a specific frequency of red will be grey.
So maybe she'll have something like a full red spectrum wrap, cape or skirt that'll have a grey band through it?
OR MAYBE MAYBE have the tape demarking the end of the cane be grey...
The thought being, "You trip on this? You understand my pain."
D4: No. Blind Barbie should look like other Barbies, only blind. That's the point. To mess about with the colors would undermine the concept of bringing people with different abilities into the frame together as equals
66: You're right. Of course you're right.
67: I say there is some pounding round pegs into square holes. It needs some traditional Barbie elements to make it a Barbie. But it should also be modified to make it more interesting to a blind user. And I think removing some unneeded features for the sighted makes the case that this thing really is for the blind.
Special K: Why is it only for blind people?
66: As usual, The K has found an awkward way to word my question that I hadn't even considered yet: Who do you think BB is for?
Meaning, what is the target audience?
Sighties to help incorporate blindies into their lives, ideals and minds...
... Or blindies to be represented in the Barbie World?
K: Well, both. And friends / family / advocates of the blind.
66: I'm not asking you.
K: And yet I answered.
I see it has braille packaging.
I thought there already was a blind Barbie. But my Barbie knowledge is limited.
67: I think it's for blind kids to have a more suitable toy for their strengths. At the bottom of this, there is a very complicated question. My daughter has been around quite a few high functioning autism spectrum kids at her college for people with adult disabilities. What I often wonder is: is all of this training: to smile, to behave more like normal kids for the kids sake? Or is it to make everyone around them be more comfortable?
66: That is a good question.
