Dolls With Disabilities: Makies Develops Toy Accessories, Birth Marks

Children with disabilities can now relate to the toys they play with. Makies reportedly started representing kids with disabilities in its latest doll collection, according to Parenting.com. The UK-based toy maker is on its way to manufacturing doll disability accessories and dolls with unique birthmarks.

Makies is a 3-D toy printer company. The company's process of toy manufacture bears striking similarities to that of Build-a-Bear, Parenting.com reported. Build-a-Bear features options to choose the toys' clothing, accessories, facial looks, hairstyle and skin color. The latest doll accessories from Makies include, but are not limited to, hearing aids, canes and a wheelchair. The company is known to have been in the process of allowing parents to design dolls that look like their kids, too. Parents can soon put facial birthmark or scars on the dolls identical to those of their kids.

The upcoming Makies doll collection was conceptualized in response to a request from "Toy Like Me," which is a Facebook campaign moderated by moms, Rebecca Atkinson, Karen Newell and Melissa Mostyn. Atkinson wore hearing aids as a child. Meanwhile, Newell and Mostyn both have kids with physical impairments. Moderators of "Toy Like Me" advocate for existence of dolls that depict kids with disabilities. To date, the social media group has reached out to both small and large toy companies.

"Toy Like Me" is determined to stand out in manufacturing dolls rare in the market. On its Facebook page, it stated, "If small companies like Makies can respond, what are the big girls and boys doing? Come on Lego, Playmobil, Mattell Barbie-770,000 UK children with disabilities (and millions more beyond) need positive toy box representation now!"

Matthew Wiggins, MakieLab's CTO, expressed his excitement over his company's new line of products. "In just the past few days we've received hundreds of suggestions and requests for Makie dolls with the new inclusive accessories, which is just amazing, and we're rising to meet that need," he said, according to Today.

He added, "We're knuckling down now on making the whole range directly available to purchase from mymakie.com, as well as kicking off new development work that we hope will lead to many more happy kids and parents."

According to 3Dprint.com, Wiggins elaborated the message he was sending out by saying, "It's fantastic that our supercharged design and manufacturing process means we can respond to a need that's not met by traditional toy companies."

He went on to say, "We're hoping to make some kids - and their parents! - really happy with these inclusive accessories."