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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.