We Need an American Girl Doll Who...Was at the Capitol Crawl

This research project is a comprehensive investigation into the history of the Disability Rights Movement in the United States and the reasons why it is not well-known among great swaths of the American population, as well as a proposed solution to this lack of knowledge. A survey was conducted of 180 Union College students that demonstrated a widespread unfamiliarity with the major names and events associated with the Disability Rights Movement. Since a link can be drawn between a lack of knowledge about the Disability Rights Movement and society’s continued inaccessibility, from both an architectural standpoint and a standpoint of social inclusion, this project sought to analyze the ways to most effectively address this lack of knowledge. Drawing on existing literature about child psychology and development, I concluded that education about social issues and historical events needs to begin as early as possible in a child’s development, as education and exposure to diversity breed empathy. Due to my interest in public history, I focused on ways that children learn most effectively outside of a traditional classroom setting, honing in on evaluating whether or not one particular popular children’s toy brand, the American Girl Doll brand, can be considered to be a legitimate tool of public history. My work found that despite the variety of criticisms that scholars have offered about the brand, from its profit-generating goals, to its perpetuation of normative ideals about girlhood and femininity, to its sanitized depictions of race and class, the American Girl Doll brand is an incredibly fitting medium to teach young children about vital historical events because it molds the tangibility, relatability, and carefully calculated blend of learning and fun that are all vital to children learning effectively. Since the history of the Disability Rights Movement remains woefully unknown among much of the American public, and since the American Girl Doll Brand has yet to create a doll whose storyline focuses upon and highlights the fight for disability rights, the application of the historical event of the Disability Rights Movement to the American Girl Doll cultural lexicon would be an incredibly effective step towards fostering education, awareness, and empathy about people with disabilities.