The mother of Kevin Van Den Bosch, a participant in the first season of ‘Down the road’, does not agree with comedian William Boeva’s criticism of the programme, she said in Het Laatste Nieuws.
In a Facebook post, Boeva had expressed displeasure with 'Down the Road', a series on Flemish VRT TV in which persons with disabilities take part in adventures alongside cinematographer Dieter Coppens. Boeva charged that such programmes presented people with disabilities as “cuddly bears,” but did not contribute to their inclusion.
“If the VRT bombards us with another season of 'Down the Road' this autumn and thinks it contributes to the inclusion of people with disabilities, that makes me sincerely sad,” wrote Boeva. “Sometimes it's rather the opposite. I like to call it the cuddly bear method, whereby you take people with disabilities out of the closet, like teddy bears, dust them off, then say 'Look. Cute hey!' And then it's back to the closet until we trot them out again."
“It is not that ‘Down the road’ ensures that, for example, more people with Down syndrome or another disability are employed at the VRT,” he added.
The mother of participant Kevin Van Den Bosch disagreed. She stressed that her son had benefited greatly from the adventures.
“Thanks to that programme he has become much more independent and dares to take a lot more initiatives. That was much less the case in the past," she told Het Laatste Nieuws. "Nowadays, when my husband and I go away, Kevin says: ‘You go, I’ll stay here’. He would never have dared to stay home alone.”
