BBC stars Greg James and Chris Smith have been accused of ableism after asking their illustrator to give a character a glass eye to make her “more disgusting”.
The Radio 1 hosts are among 13 authors commissioned to write new stories based on Roald Dahl’s characters, with DJ James and his former newsreader Chris writing a follow up to ‘The Twits’.
The duo have written children’s books before but said this new opportunity was “too good to resist”. But the pair have come under fire after demanding their illustrator give a character a glass eye in a video shared to Puffin Books social media.
In the original 1980 story Mrs Twit had a glass eye and likes to let Mr Twit know she is always watching him as they play grotesque tricks on each other.
But the BBC stars have been accused of ableism after the clip was released, though it was swiftly deleted after the backlash.
As they discuss how to make the characters more revolting, the illustrator asks the pair: “What about a glass eye?”
James responds “A glass eye!” before Smith adds: “She needs a glass eye. That’s it. What a disgusting pair of Twits!”
The video has sparked a major backlash with Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson commenting: “Thanks. Thanks very much. #sarcasm. I’d hoped the world had moved on.”
The Royal National Institute of Blind People told MailOnline: “When there’s positive representation of disabilities in children’s books, a truly wonderful thing happens – children with disabilities feel seen and heard, and their friends and classmates treat everyone the same. There is nothing at all revolting about prosthetic eyes, we think they’re brilliant.
“We strongly urge all authors, illustrators, or publishers to think about the influence they have and the role they can play in encouraging acceptance and understanding of disabilities, both visible and invisible, especially for children with vision impairments.”
Ed Finch posted: “This is a real mistake. I would take it down now. Having taught more than one child with a prosthetic eye – and with other eye conditions- I know that the very last thing they need is for a respected adult to be saying that their disability is ‘disgusting’.”
Another user, Nic, replied: “Agree completely, my son (now an adult) is registered blind and his eyes look different due to his condition and many surgeries, would be furious with anyone saying they’re disgusting, this is very wrong.”
Author Richard O’Neill wrote: “As someone with a serious eye problem, this is just awful. Worse for children. But no doubt it’ll win an award.”