Imagination has no limits: Design toys for children of all abilities

If you’re one of Amazon’s millions of customers, you probably received the company’s holiday gift book in the mail. This throwback to the department store catalogs of yesterday is filled with images of dolls, action figures, play sets and electronics.

The colorful catalog asks kids to dream big, choose their favorite toys and “share the adventure” — but not every child can do so.

Children with physical disabilities are often unable to play with toys like their peers. Many toys are inaccessible because the button to make them work is too small or takes too much force for a child with a physical disability. Remember the Tickle Me Elmo craze? You press on the little red Muppet’s tummy, and he laughs and vibrates. Yet what if you are unable to press hard enough to make Elmo react?

Advocates and experts on early childhood education have said that play is the work of childhood, and toys are critical for children’s development.

Fortunately, a creative and inspiring do-it-yourself movement is bustling to help children with physical disabilities. As recently featured in The Seattle Times, events such as PROVAIL’s “holiday hack” show how a large, easy to press, adapted activation switch is added to an existing toy’s wiring. This relatively simple adaptation allows a child with a physical disability to play with Tickle Me Elmo, or other toys, just like their peers.

Another example is the Go Baby Go program that modifies off-the-shelf, battery operated ride-on toy cars for children with physical disabilities. Typically, these children are unable to make the ride-on toy cars “go” because they come with a foot pedal for activation. Instead, an adapted switch is wired into the car and placed on the steering wheel as an accessible activation method.

Although inspiring, the existence of this DIY movement indicates broader and systemic barriers to toys and play for children with physical disabilities. First, the adapted switch costs $75 despite its components costing only a few dollars. Second, some knowledge and technical skills are required to rewire a toy for adapted-switch access. These barriers inhibit toy accessibility.

Growing up in the ‘90s, it was always a thrill to receive the Sears holiday catalog and circle in bright red permanent marker my most wanted toys. Flipping through the pages of Amazon’s gift book, I was encouraged to see disability representation with a boy using a wheelchair and playing at a table, and a girl wearing glasses.

There is even a disability themed toy: the Hot Wheels Remote Control Aaron Wheelz Wheelie Chair. If you’re unfamiliar with Aaron “Wheelz” Fotheringham, the paralympic athlete made news last month when he landed a double back flip 360 in his wheelchair. This toy is super cool, but the remote control may not be accessible for children with physical disabilities.

Toy companies have made strides with disability representation, but it’s time to go further and develop more accessible toy options for children with physical disabilities. Toy companies have the manufacturing and distribution infrastructure to develop and sell a low-cost adapted switch for those hard to use buttons, and can include a standard 3.5mm headphone jack for easy plug-in of the adapted switch. Manufacturers could also design a ride-on toy car model that comes off-the-shelf with accessible features for children with physical disabilities.

Of course, toy companies have profits in mind, but this goal is not mutually exclusive from creating accessible toys. Families of children with disabilities are consumers too, and this market may not be as niche as expected. Toys that use universal design — that is, that can be used by all who may want to use it — do not limit a toy’s appeal to only children with physical disabilities. Rather, universal design opens the market to all potential users of different ages and abilities.

Every child should have access to the worlds of play promised on the shelves of a Target toy aisle or inside Amazon’s holiday gift book. The need and the opportunity are there. The multibillion-dollar toy industry should follow their customers’ lead and let its imagination roam free.