Page 58 - Tom Steyer Issue

make kids smile. I can draw them, and I can draw what they want to be. I would use things that I have and make something pretty.”
Representation Matters: Disability
Besides having full access to PBS’s games and kids TV shows, it is just as crucial for children with all abilities to feel seen and accurately represented in media. Often- times, TV shows lack this kind of diversity, and if a character with a disability is portrayed, it’s often in a stereotypical way. PBS wants to change that.
Sara explains, “We feel very strongly about making sure that kids can see a positive representation of themselves, not a stereotype. So, there are several shows that feature characters with disabilities,” Sara says. The main char- acter of the new show Hero Elementary is on the autism spectrum and always has headphones around his neck so that he can tune things out if the sensory input gets too overwhelming. On Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, a girl named Chrissie is wearing braces and walks with crutches. In several episodes, she and Daniel thematize her disability and talk about the ways her braces help her to walk. “In some ways we are different, but in so many ways we are the same,” is a line in a song in one of the episodes that explains how Chrissie might look a
bit different, but still enjoys the same things as Daniel and his friends.
Sara continues, “Another show that represents a variety of children with disabilities is Arthur. Buster, Arthur’s best friend, lives with asthma. Carl, a main character in the show, has Asperger’s. In the episode “When Carl Met George,” PBS dives deep into explaining how cer- tain situations might feel differently for people with Asperger’s compared to neurotypical children some- times. Additionally, the show features Brain, who suf- fers a trauma after a hurricane hit his town. After the event, he has reoccurring anxiety, and the episodes show him talking to a therapist and learning how to calm him- self down if he feels overwhelmed. And the list goes on and on.”
“These characters are not just developed in a vacuum. It’s not writers in a room developing it. The producers themselves, who create the content, work with outside advisors and with communities to make sure that they are representing things accurately. Additionally, through the partnership with the US Department of Education, we have been able to provide advisors to contact when we are representing children with different abilities,” Sara states.
58 ABILITY