WEBVTT

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- (Sara) My name is Sara Dewitt,

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and I am the Vice President
of PBS Kids Digital.

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So I manage digital production

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and partnership with the producers 
of PBS Kids shows

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to develop their games and streaming video
and websites.

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So really all digital production
of PBSKids.org,

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the PBS Kids video app,
the PBS Kids games app,

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and PBS Kids for Parents are all things
that fall within my group.

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- Can you tell me a little how you try

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to make these accessible
for children with disabilities?

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- We are very committed at PBS

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to being representative
of as broad an audience as possible,

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and also then accessible
to as wide an audience as possible.

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So, for us, that definitely includes

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children with disabilities.

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It also is thinking about kids
across all socioeconomic status,

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trying to think about how we can be accessible

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to as many of America's children as possible.

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And so we take that very seriously

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and feel very strongly about it.

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We want kids to feel
like they can see themselves

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in our shows and in our content,

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and that they can play unfettered

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with our digital content in a way

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that allows them to learn and grow.

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- Can you give me maybe a few examples

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of shows or games that are accessible,

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and the way they are accessible

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to different kids with disabilities?

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- Sure. So things like, just,

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our shows that you might just see
on television,

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like The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot about That

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and Peg + Cat, Splash and Bubbles,

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those are shows that have closed captioning,

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both on air
and on our digital platforms

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but also descriptive audio

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and Spanish secondary audio on air.

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Our new show that's launching next week,

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Hero Elementary,

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will also have all of those things
when it launches,

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for viewing when it shows.

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And so anything also, then,
that's streaming video,

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the PBS Kids video app
and the Apple TV version of that,

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as well as the mobile versions,

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will also,
everything has closed captioning.

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And then, in the game area,

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a few examples where we've gone deeper

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and tried to do more extensive
work in accessibility,

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I think the best example is a game

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developed by our member station in New York,

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THIRTEEN WNET,

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they did a game for Cyberchase

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called Railway Hero,

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where they really were very intentional

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in every piece of that game

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to thinking about how it could be accessible

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to as wide a population as possible.

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They worked with Bridge Multimedia

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and built in all kinds of additional features

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like text resizing,
different things for color contrast,

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ways to turn music off and on,

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anything that might cause any kind
of sensory overload.

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Just lots of features for children

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with both physical and cognitive impairments.

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And through that process,
we learned so much

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that we were then able to take

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to other games and other opportunities.

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So those are some quick examples.

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- How do you make sure
that all these features work?

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Do you have a test group of kids
you work with?

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- So we test all of our games.

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We have what we call
a play-testing program,

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and we partner with many schools

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to go in and test with kids.

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Now that so many schools are closed,

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we are doing virtual testing.

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So, recruiting families and doing testing

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over video chat
or by sending parents surveys.

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But everything we do,

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even when it's just at the
paper concept level,

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and when it's in alpha and beta,

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goes in front of kids to get a sense.

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And so we've been really actively working
on partnerships,

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where we then can be testing

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with kids with differing abilities.

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So one of the biggest ones

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is with Johns Hopkins IDEALS,

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and so we've been working 
with them quite a bit

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to then test with kids
who are in that program

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and talk to the parents

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about the needs
that they might have for content,

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So that we can learn from all of this

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and see if there are ways

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we can improve all of our games.

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- So we've talked
about captions and descriptive audio,

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but I've also seen that you have

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some content for kids with autism,

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kids with learning disabilities,
and things like that.

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Can you talk a little more

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about these kind of accessibility features
you offer?

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- So I think, for kids with autism,

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we've been thinking a lot
about sensory kind of things.

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So that thing about turning music on

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or being able to lower volume,

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that's something that we've been

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working on very specifically.

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And then certainly in games that focus

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on feelings and emotions
and social-emotional content,

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we, you know,
the games are produced

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for a wide audience,

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and what we then are trying to do

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is think about what scaffolds
can we build in

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that can be helpful specifically

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to children on the autism spectrum.

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And so, in some of those places,

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it's not only offering the name
of an emotion

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and a picture of the character
with an emotion,

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but, like, we have
a Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood app

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where we then allow the child

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to take a photo of themselves

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trying to show that emotion,

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so that you have different representations

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of that emotion for the child
to see in the game.

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We have heard from a few producers

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that the eye shape and the ability

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of the character to express emotion

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has been resonating with children
on the autism spectrum.

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And so we'd love to do more research

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about that and what that is,

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but we regularly receive letters
from parents

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who talk about shows like Dinosaur Train

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and how their children are responding

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to elements of that show in ways

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that they had not responded to others.

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- And if we talk about diversity overall,

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especially representation of people,
or children, with disabilities,

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can you talk a little bit about

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how you represent this in your shows?

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- So this is a really critical thing for us,

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and something that we feel
very strongly about,

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is making sure that, as I said,

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kids can see representations of themselves

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that are positive representations,

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not being presented as a stereotype.

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So there are several shows
that feature characters.

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The new show that launches next week,
Hero Elementary,

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one of the principal characters,
AJ Gadgets,

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he's one of the four kids

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who are the principals in the show,

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is on the autism spectrum

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and always has headphones around his neck

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so that he can tune things out
when he needs to.

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We also, on Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood,

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Prince Wednesday's cousin, Chrissie,
walks with braces,

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and there are several episodes

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where she and Daniel talk about

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the fact that she wears braces on her legs,

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and what are the things
about the two of them

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that are the same,
and what are the things

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about the two of them
that are different.

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You know, she doesn't have a tail,

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and he has a tail.

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She has braces,
and he doesn't have braces, you know?

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So really trying to model for kids

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that the knowledge we have
that kids are gonna notice

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that something's different,

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and to model good ways
to have those conversations

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about like,
you probably really still like

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a lot of the same things,

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even though you may look different,

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or you may walk differently.

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Arthur is a show
that has done a wonderful job

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of representing lots of different kids.

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Buster has asthma.

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One of the main characters
in one episode has-

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There's a traumatic event
in the neighborhood,

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and he suffers with anxiety.

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And so the episode follows him through

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meeting with counselors and therapists

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and working on ways to calm himself down

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when he's feeling overwhelmed and panicked.

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And they also have Carl,

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who is on the autism spectrum,

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and he's in like nine episodes.

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He's a recurring character.

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So there's just lots of ways that we're

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incorporating characters.

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And I should say that these aren't just
being developed in a vacuum.

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it's not just a writer sitting in a room
writing it.

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We have all kinds of-

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The producers themselves
who create the content

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are often working with outside advisors

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and with communities
to make sure that they're

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representing things accurately.

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But then also, through this partnership

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with the US Department of Education,

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we've been able to then provide
additional advisors

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for our producers to contact and talk with

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when they're thinking about representing

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children with differing abilities.