Representing Children with Disabilities on Public Television
Collection Summary
This special collection features eight notable examples of public television for and about children with disabilities. Focusing on programming from the 1970s to 2000, the collection illustrates how public media has consistently led the way in improving accessibility, representation, and inclusive storytelling.
Among the programs showcased in the collection is the Emmy Award-winning PBS series Rainbow’s End (1978–1979), the first national series created specifically for Deaf children and one of the first to use open captions. Each episode of Rainbow’s End includes lessons in American Sign Language and explores different aspects of Deaf culture and technology. Episodes also introduce children to Deaf role models in sports, entertainment, and the arts. Featured guests include Joyce Lynch of Newsign 4–the first television news program for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing community in the San Francisco area–and record-breaking racecar driver and stuntwoman Kitty O’Neil.
The collection also highlights pioneering programming from WGBH, including Zoom (1972–1978), Rebop (1976–1979), and Making Friends (1980). The two Zoom episodes in the collection feature short films profiling Timmy Cummings, who is blind, and Ginny Brown, a little person. Timmy and Ginny also appear on set and engage in candid conversations with the Zoom cast. Rebop explores the nuances of communication through the stories of Todd, who is Deaf, and Kai Kee, who was born with a cleft palate. Todd’s family debates whether he should attend Detroit Day School for the Deaf, while Kai Kee builds confidence through speech therapy, everyday conversations, and teaching his principal Chinese. Finally, Making Friends, a series of three short films produced by WGBH for the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped, presents children with disabilities navigating the ups and downs of friendship.
Rounding out the collection are WQED’s The Puzzle Children (1976) and Bob the Vid Tech, “Meeting the Challenge” (2000) from Maryland Public Television. Hosted by Julie Andrews, The Puzzle Children uses songs and skits to educate viewers of all ages about learning disabilities in children. In “Meeting the Challenge,” children with disabilities participate in outdoor activities, including horseback riding, camping, and sailing.
The oldest items in this collection are from the 1970s, and since that time, much has changed. Over the past fifty years, disability language, disability culture, perspectives on disability, and educational philosophies have evolved and transformed. As a result, programs in this collection sometimes express ideas and use terminology that differ from what is considered appropriate today. Nevertheless, the eight items featured in this collection represent an important chapter in the history of inclusive and accessible programming on public television.
Of course, the collection represents only a fraction of the programming public television has produced featuring children with disabilities. In the 1980s, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (1968–2001) invited Jeff Erlanger on the program to discuss his use of an electric wheelchair. More recently, series such as Sesame Street (1969–present), Arthur (1996–2022), and Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood (2012–present) have introduced recurring characters with disabilities. However, the programs presented here are among the most groundbreaking examples of public television's longstanding commitment to representing disability onscreen.
Collection Background
In 2024, the AAPB began collaborating with the National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) to create an online special collection showcasing historic public television programming for and about children with disabilities. Together, NCAM and AAPB staff identified nearly 100 programs for inclusion in the collection. However, because most of these programs were produced before 1980, they often lack the features necessary to meet modern accessibility standards.
Through the generous support of Borealis Philanthropy, the AAPB was able to improve the accessibility of eight programs, adding closed captions and audio descriptions provided by the Media Access Group (MAG) at GBH. This builds on the work that MAG, originally known as The Caption Center and Descriptive Video Service, has done for over fifty years. To learn more about the history of GBH's contributions to media accessibility, check out the Access for All: Major Milestones in Media Accessibility timeline.
Some items in the collection–specifically, the Rainbow’s End and Rebop episodes–include the original open captions used at the time of airing. Open captions are embedded in the video file, meaning that they are always visible and do not require any special player functionality to display. During this period, captions were intentionally not verbatim transcriptions of what was said on screen. Instead, following specific style guidelines, they rephrased spoken dialogue to make it easier to read. Although updated closed captions have been added to these programs, which can be turned on or off, the original open captions have been retained, as they provide a record of the history of captioning and insight into how captions for these programs originally appeared.
Currently, the AAPB is raising funds to update additional programs to expand the collection while ensuring it remains accessible to all audiences. If you would like to support this project and all the AAPB’s efforts to preserve and improve access to public broadcasting, please consider donating. You can make a donation through the AAPB’s donation page, which can also be accessed by clicking the “Donate” button at the top of this page. Organizations interested in partnering with the AAPB to expand this collection should reach out directly at aapb_notifications@wgbh.org.
