Rebecca Atkinson: Why I opened the Toy Like Me Etsy shop – so deaf children could have a toy like them

In 2015 I noticed there was almost no representation of disability in toys and I started the viral Toy Like Me campaign to lobby the global toy industry to stop ignoring 150 million deaf and disabled children worldwide.

Since then, Toy Like Me has grown into a registered arts and play non-profit organisation, creating projects to engage children in playful conversations about disability. Representation in the toy industry has also progressed.

Today you can get Barbie with prosthetic limbs, Lego mini figures with wheelchairs and earlier this year Toy Like Me launched our very own online Etsy Shop, selling 3D printed toy hearing aids, cochlear implants and bone anchored hearing aids for plush toys.

The Etsy shop came off the back of Toy Like Me’s Bear Ear Clinic, a live role play installation I created 2022 after being inspired by the book Can Bears Ski? by Raymond Antrobus and Polly Dunbar. As someone who had grown up deaf, I loved seeing Bear’s trip to the audiologist so beautifully written and illustrated in the deaf-created book and imagined how fun it would be to create a life-sized bear ear clinic which deaf and hearing children could visit with their teddy bears and receive a pair of toys hearing aids.

I set about contacting the book’s illustrator, Polly Dunbar, who is deaf herself, and she kindly agreed to work with me to create the design of the life size ear clinic. We then found a 3D print designer (who was hearing but had a deaf mum) who created designs which we had printed and child safety tested.

We launched the Bear Ear Clinic at the Norfolk Deaf Festival in July 2022 and around 200 deaf and hearing children brought their cuddly animals for a hearing test and free toy hearing aids. It was very emotional to watch people newly diagnosed babies, right up to older adults with acquired hearing loss, all find joy in seeing their experience represented in a playful and high quality way.

After the success of the Norfolk Deaf Festival Bear Ear Clinic, we started getting request from around the UK for the toy hearing aids. As a grant funded organisation, it’s just too costly for us to tour the clinic but we didn’t want to keep all the fun to ourselves. We wanted to find a way to make the toys available to all children and families and so the idea came for the Toy Like Me Etsy shop!

The toy hearing aids, cochlear implants and BAHAs on sale in the shop have all been made in the UK and since the shop opened we have shipped to customers all over the world, including Germany, USA and even Malta! Every order comes with a cute ‘I’m just right!’ sticker, designed by Polly Dunbar for extra deaf pride!

The toy hearing aids, cochlear implants and BAHAs on sale in the shop have all been made in the UK and since the shop opened we have shipped to customers all over the world, including Germany, USA and even Malta! Every order comes with a cute ‘I’m just right!’ sticker, designed by Polly Dunbar for extra deaf pride!

For the rest of December we are offering Limping Chicken readers 10% off with the discount code LIMPINGCHICKEN.

All profits from the sale of our hearing aids helps fund our community events with deaf children.

Visit the Toy Like Me shop today – www.etsy.com/uk/shop/ToyLikeMeShop

International Shipping Available.

For other toys with disabilities visit amazon.co.uk/shop/toylikeme