dora blind

As the old saying goes, "Out of the mouths of babes." One child's observation about a beloved cartoon character has people questioning if they missed a key detail. Recently, a woman shared that while she was on her lunch break, she came across a child on the Internet explaining to his teacher that Dora the Explorer, a Nick Jr. cartoon character, is blind.

This wasn't something that the child made up without thought. Instead, the unnamed child was using context clues from the cartoon itself, and his observation has Millennials questioning everything. The woman who runs the account, Make That Magic on Instagram, shares her shock at the seemingly logical explanation.

"This child looked his teacher in the face and said the character that I'm about to put behind me is blind, and that he knows that this character is blind because of their actions," the woman says before a picture of Dora pops up. "I never even thought about the fact that Dora the Explorer could be blind. Mind you, whole time I hated her because I thought she just wasn't nosy enough, and wasn't actually paying attention to things. I've been being ableist the entire time."

Dora the ExplorerMike Licht/Flickr

She explains that the child pointed out that Boots, Dora's trusty monkey sidekick, was actually her service animal. If you've ever seen Dora, you're aware that she does nothing without Boots, who often helps her navigate tricky situations. The woman in the video admits that she's making jokes about the situation, but highlights the level of empathy children have towards others. Nickelodeon has not confirmed, nor have they ever mentioned the possibility of Dora being visually impaired. While the woman says not to take the observation too seriously, others are pointing out signs that the child could be right.

"This might explain why her maps spoke to her," one person writes before another follows up by saying, "An ADA accessory!!!"

Dora and Boots swinging Giphy

"And she was hard of hearing because why she kept telling the children, SAY IT LOUDER!! Lil girl! You couldn’t hear them the first time? Had my baby in there yelling," another person jokes.

"Now as a disabled person who actively advocates for every facet of our community I had no thought to go in this direction either and now I'm overjoyed to believe in this possibility for Dora. CMON CHILDREN!!!!!" one person rejoices.

Another person assumed that Dora may have been autistic, writing, "I knew she was on the spectrum. I thought boots was her emotional support animal. The talking map, was like our gps , they talk. Some people have to be told, some people you can show, some people need hands on experience."

dora the explorer nickelodeon GIF Giphy

Someone else points out the importance of teaching empathy to children by saying, "This brings up such an important topic though, that our generation and the generations before us weren’t taught empathy and instead were taught that everyone should be functioning at the same level all the time, which is quite ableist and where we get all these bullying terms and stereotypes from. The babies now are born with and taught empathy from us millennials who are doing the healing work and the younger generation having kids now. It’s so necessary to have empathy and grace for one and other because what may be annoying af to us could be a true struggle for someone else…"

Was Dora blind? Likely not, or Nick Jr. would've probably pointed that out as one of the educational factors of the show. Dora was designed to be like an interactive computer game, as the cartoon came out in the year 2000. That was when most people were purchasing home computers, and some computer games were being marketed as educational. Dora was getting children to become actively engaged with the program, instead of being passive.

dora the explorer GIF Giphy

While her constantly asking where things were when they were right in front of her may have been annoying to parents, and had children questioning if she could see, she wasn't blind. Her large eyes and head are designed not only to hold a small child's attention but to convey cuteness and evoke empathy. But if Dora is revealed to be blind, it's nice to know she has the empathy of an entire generation who are happy to accommodate her needs.