In all the children's TV shows out there, there's very little, if any, deaf representation.

There's no TV show or series. There's no real central core of access for deaf kids in

children's media. It's Wednesday January 31st but as you well know by now it is

also Science Friday.

I'm Scifry producer Rasha Arredi.

A team at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.

is incorporating language research,

animation, motion capture technology, and storytelling to create the world's

first animated TV show with signing characters. The goal is to help deaf kids develop their literacy

skills in English and American Sign Language, ASL, while being entertained by fun, colorful

characters and stories. Here's guest host Ariel Doam Ross.

Animated TV shows are so important for kids because they can teach them to read, draw, spell, talk, and the creative ways in which shows tell stories, where they

whisk kids away to some colorful imaginary world, that contributes to the learning.

But shows like that aren't accessible to every child,

like deaf kids and children who are blind, for example,

which could, in turn, affect how these kids learn language during those sensitive and formative early childhood years.

My next guest is someone who's incorporating ASL, American Sign Language, into children's media that's made for and by the deaf community.

Melissa Malzkoon is the founder and director of the Motion Light Lab at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.

Melissa is third generation deaf and is answering my questions in her native ASL.

The person you're hearing is an interpreter.

Melissa, welcome to Science Friday.

Thank you for having me.

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