Accessibility and Inclusion in Kids TV: Interview with Sara DeWitt, PBS KIDS

- (Sara) My name is Sara Dewitt,

and I am the Vice President
of PBS Kids Digital.

So I manage digital production

and partnership with the producers
of PBS Kids shows

to develop their games and streaming video
and websites.

So really all digital production
of PBSKids.org,

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

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

- Can you tell me a little how you try

to make these accessible
for children with disabilities?

- We are very committed at PBS

to being representative
of as broad an audience as possible,

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

So, for us, that definitely includes

children with disabilities.

It also is thinking about kids
across all socioeconomic status,

trying to think about how we can be accessible

to as many of America's children as possible.

And so we take that very seriously

and feel very strongly about it.

We want kids to feel
like they can see themselves

in our shows and in our content,

and that they can play unfettered

with our digital content in a way

that allows them to learn and grow.

- Can you give me maybe a few examples

of shows or games that are accessible,

and the way they are accessible

to different kids with disabilities?

- Sure. So things like, just,

our shows that you might just see
on television,

like The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot about That

and Peg + Cat, Splash and Bubbles,

those are shows that have closed captioning,

both on air
and on our digital platforms

but also descriptive audio

and Spanish secondary audio on air.

Our new show that's launching next week,

Hero Elementary,

will also have all of those things
when it launches,

for viewing when it shows.

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

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

as well as the mobile versions,

will also,
everything has closed captioning.

And then, in the game area,

a few examples where we've gone deeper

and tried to do more extensive
work in accessibility,

I think the best example is a game

developed by our member station in New York,

THIRTEEN WNET,

they did a game for Cyberchase

called Railway Hero,

where they really were very intentional

in every piece of that game

to thinking about how it could be accessible

to as wide a population as possible.

They worked with Bridge Multimedia

and built in all kinds of additional features

like text resizing,
different things for color contrast,

ways to turn music off and on,

anything that might cause any kind
of sensory overload.

Just lots of features for children

with both physical and cognitive impairments.

And through that process,
we learned so much

that we were then able to take

to other games and other opportunities.

So those are some quick examples.

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

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

- So we test all of our games.

We have what we call
a play-testing program,

and we partner with many schools

to go in and test with kids.

Now that so many schools are closed,

we are doing virtual testing.

So, recruiting families and doing testing

over video chat
or by sending parents surveys.

But everything we do,

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

and when it's in alpha and beta,

goes in front of kids to get a sense.

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

where we then can be testing

with kids with differing abilities.

So one of the biggest ones

is with Johns Hopkins IDEALS,

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

to then test with kids
who are in that program

and talk to the parents

about the needs
that they might have for content,

So that we can learn from all of this

and see if there are ways

we can improve all of our games.

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

but I've also seen that you have

some content for kids with autism,

kids with learning disabilities,
and things like that.

Can you talk a little more

about these kind of accessibility features
you offer?

- So I think, for kids with autism,

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

So that thing about turning music on

or being able to lower volume,

that's something that we've been

working on very specifically.

And then certainly in games that focus

on feelings and emotions
and social-emotional content,

we, you know,
the games are produced

for a wide audience,

and what we then are trying to do

is think about what scaffolds
can we build in

that can be helpful specifically

to children on the autism spectrum.

And so, in some of those places,

it's not only offering the name
of an emotion

and a picture of the character
with an emotion,

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

where we then allow the child

to take a photo of themselves

trying to show that emotion,

so that you have different representations

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

We have heard from a few producers

that the eye shape and the ability

of the character to express emotion

has been resonating with children
on the autism spectrum.

And so we'd love to do more research

about that and what that is,

but we regularly receive letters
from parents

who talk about shows like Dinosaur Train

and how their children are responding

to elements of that show in ways

that they had not responded to others.

- And if we talk about diversity overall,

especially representation of people,
or children, with disabilities,

can you talk a little bit about

how you represent this in your shows?

- So this is a really critical thing for us,

and something that we feel
very strongly about,

is making sure that, as I said,

kids can see representations of themselves

that are positive representations,

not being presented as a stereotype.

So there are several shows
that feature characters.

The new show that launches next week,
Hero Elementary,

one of the principal characters,
AJ Gadgets,

he's one of the four kids

who are the principals in the show,

is on the autism spectrum

and always has headphones around his neck

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

We also, on Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood,

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

and there are several episodes

where she and Daniel talk about

the fact that she wears braces on her legs,

and what are the things
about the two of them

that are the same,
and what are the things

about the two of them
that are different.

You know, she doesn't have a tail,

and he has a tail.

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

So really trying to model for kids

that the knowledge we have
that kids are gonna notice

that something's different,

and to model good ways
to have those conversations

about like,
you probably really still like

a lot of the same things,

even though you may look different,

or you may walk differently.

Arthur is a show
that has done a wonderful job

of representing lots of different kids.

Buster has asthma.

One of the main characters
in one episode has-

There's a traumatic event
in the neighborhood,

and he suffers with anxiety.

And so the episode follows him through

meeting with counselors and therapists

and working on ways to calm himself down

when he's feeling overwhelmed and panicked.

And they also have Carl,

who is on the autism spectrum,

and he's in like nine episodes.

He's a recurring character.

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

incorporating characters.

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

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

We have all kinds of-

The producers themselves
who create the content

are often working with outside advisors

and with communities
to make sure that they're

representing things accurately.

But then also, through this partnership

with the US Department of Education,

we've been able to then provide
additional advisors

for our producers to contact and talk with

when they're thinking about representing

children with differing abilities.