Keston Ott-Dahl is a mother in Antioch, and she has been petitioning for Disney to feature a disabled person as a main character in a future animated film. Her 15-month-old daughter has Down syndrome, and she hopes to see Disney create a role model who represents Down syndrome in a positive light. Ott-Dahl has wonderful intentions, but her time working on the petition may be spent in vain.

According to the petition: “Disney does a great job of depicting right from wrong. It has long providing wonderful moral lessons that teach our children to be good people — but sadly, the company comes up short in one critical area. Its movies have almost no representation of disabled people, those often bullied and looked down upon by their fellow children. What wonderful lessons of diversity, compassion, and acceptance Disney could teach our kids if they promoted disabled characters as heroes and heroines in their beloved movies!”

Ott-Dahl’s argument is on point.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame did a great job in featuring a hero with physical abnormalities. However, dear Quasimoto did not end up with the girl he was crushing on and was forced accept his romantic disposition would be forever in the “friend zone”. The characters of Finding Nemo represented those who live with mental illness (like Dory and the crab with OCD), but let’s face it: they were fish, not princesses.

However, the Antioch mom will probably be waiting a long time before she sees any change in terms of characters with disabilities. Disney still has a long way to go in the diversity department.

Disney does get some credit for having princesses and heroines like Mulan, Pocahontas and Tiana, but even with these ladies of diversity in film, they are often ignored or forgotten in merchandise.

It is almost impossible to find products featuring the badass Chinese warrior or the independent Native American princess in the Disney store.

It seems like we haven not even seen our favorite Arabian Princess Jasmine in a while. When the princesses are shown grouped together and pictured on backpacks or pajamas, Tiana is often the only featured princess of non-Caucasian ethnicity. That sounds familiar. Can you say “token black girl”?

Also, is it just me or are we still waiting on Disney to feature a Latina princess?

They are not just lacking in terms of ethnic diversity, Disney has yet to create an openly gay hero or heroine in their animated films. Sexual preference is not discussed in their movies, and most of the characters are assumed to be straight.

Ott-Dahl’s petition has reached over 70,000 signatures thus far, and she plans to deliver the petition to the Disney headquarters in Burbank on Nov. 26. We wish the best of luck to her, but she should prepare to be discouraged.

Disney has the power to feature more characters that are ethnically diverse, have different sexual preferences or represent those who are living with disabilities, but we have yet to see them put their power to such use.