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Petition Asks Disney To Include Kids With Down Syndrome In Animated Films

BURBANK (CBSLA.com) — Activists are calling on Disney executives to represent children with Down syndrome and other disabilities in its animated films.

More than 75,000 people have signed a San Francisco family's petition asking Disney to help fight stigma and discrimination against people with disabilities by representing them in their films.

Keston Ott-Dahl hand-delivered a copy of the the Care2 petition to Disney headquarters in Burbank Wednesday, along with her partner Andrea, their 6-year-old daughter Jules, and their 15-month-old daughter Delaney, who has Down syndrome.

The petition calls upon to the studio to add characters more like Delaney to future projects "not to make a movie about Down syndrome but just to make it incidental that a character, hero or heroine, has Down syndrome," said Ott-Dahl.

In response to the petition, a Disney spokesperson said the studio is "committed to continuing to create characters that are accessible and relatable to all children."

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