Prejudice against disabled people is seldom "up there" with race and gender bias but the case of Cerrie Burnell shows that it should be.
Burnell was born with the lower part of her right arm missing and is a presenter on the CBeebies children's TV channel.
Cue complaints and vitriol from parents who are demanding that Burnell be taken off the screens - in other words, sacked - because her disability may be scaring the young viewers.
The comments appeared on the Grown-ups section of the CBeebies website but now have been deleted. Indeed, this morning the Cerrie Burnell thread was out of action - so even those who wished to show their support for the presenter could not do so.
However, a blogger on disability matters, Same Difference, has accessed the deleted remarks and the comments are truly shocking. One talks of banning his daughter from watching the channel because he feared the sight of Burnell would give her nightmares.
Another talked of the BBC's "scary" determination to show "minorities at every opportunity". And there was the inevitable gripe about "positive discrimination". All we needed was a comment about political correctness going mad and we would have had the full set of clichés borne of bigotry.
One can only speculate the sort of attitudes these parents are instilling into their children.
What, I wonder, was their reaction to the disabled characters, Creature Discomforts, developed by the Wallace and Gromit team and supported by Leonard Cheshire Disability. Perhaps they met with approval because they inhabited a fantasy world.
Well, in the real world it is people, not animated sausage dogs, who have disabilities. And the earlier children see people with disabilities in real-life situations the quicker they will be accepting of disabled people in mainstream life.
Shame on the parents; and, importantly, let us hope that Burnell can continue with her career.
Thanks for the link! If you would like to read more of the deleted comments, they are in the article about this in the News section of the BBC's disability website, Ouch.
i work for a tv station which is run by and for people disabilities you can take a look at www.funkyflamingo.co.uk