Page 55 - Tom Steyer Issue

Accessibility and Inclusion:
‘This is who we are’ - PBS Kids, a model for all media
For more than 50 years, PBS has strived to be as accessible as possible to a broad audience, and they have paid particular attention to including children with a variety of disabilities. ABIL- ITY Magazine’s Karina Sturm spoke with Vice President of PBS Kids Digital, Sara DeWitt, about PBS’s efforts to make their shows and online games accessible to kids of all abilities. For the audience experience, Karina spoke with actual PBS KIDS viewers (children) and also tried out some of the PBS KIDS’ educational games and provided her firsthand experience.
Sara DeWitt is responsible for digital production and partnership with the producers at PBS KIDS shows, as well as for developing games, streaming video, and maintaining the website. Sara explains,
“We are very committed to being representative and accessible to as wide an audience as pos- sible. That includes children with disabilities, but also kids across all socioeconomic status. We want kids to feel like they can see themselves in our shows and that they can play unfet- tered with our digital content in a way that allows them to learn and grow”
Test Group: Kids with Disabilities
By allowing test groups of children with a variety of disabilities to try every developed game, Sara and her team immediately know if their games cause them any significant issues. “We partner with many schools to go in to test with kids. Now that schools are closed, we do virtual testing. Even when our games are only at a paper-concept level, they go in front of kids. Addi- tionally, we have partnerships where we can test with kids with different abilities. The biggest one is with Johns Hopkins IDEALS,” Sara states. IDEALS is The Institute for Innovation in Development, Engagement, and Learning Systems at the Johns Hopkins School of Education, with which PBS partnered in August to test new accessibility resources for parents.
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