7 easy ways to make your websites more accessible

by Beth Finke

One last tech post before September comes to an end –this one is a primer on making websites available to people with disabilities.

Well, actually, it’s about making web sites accessible to people who have visual impairments. I’m blind and know a fair amount about this subject. Here are some tips:

1. Avoid layering red and green or blue and purple. Those colors can be indistinguishable to some readers who are color blind (take a screenshot of your page and a site called Vischeck will let you preview how it might look to someone who is color blind).
2. Use high contrast. If the background is light in color, make sure to use a dark text color, and vice versa. This doesn’t just help your readers with visual impairments, it makes reading easier for just about everyone.
3. Make sure your font size isn’t too small. Tiny text is hard for anyone to read, and it can be impossible for some people with visual impairments. 14pt is a good font size for anyone, and 10pt text should be the absolute minimum.
4. Use headings. Large headings can help some readers with low-vision find their way around a site, and screen readers (like the one I use to write and edit these blog posts) can scan through content more efficiently if headings are there to break the text up some.
5. Use high-contrast with links, too. If the color of your links are much different than the rest of your text, they’ll be easier to spot.
6. Avoid links that say “click here.” Screen reading technology allows blind readers to jump from link to link, and if the link only says “Click here” that’s all we hear when we’re jumping around like that — we don’t know where “here” will take us.
7. Avoid putting text inside images. If a reader with a visual impairment enlarges the graphic to read what’s inside, the Text in the image gets blurry and difficult to read. Screen reading software reads text on the screen out loud, but it can’t read text inside images, leaving people like me who are blind in the, ahem, dark.

Like I said, I am particularly familiar with tips for making sites accessible to people who are blind or have low vision, so I rely on you readers to comment with ideas of ways web designers can make sites and blogs more accessible to people who have other disabilities. Together we can help designers create accessible sites for all

Guess how people who are blind can text?

by Beth Finke

We’ve published a few blog posts about technology in September, and I’m rounding out the month with this one about how I text people without being able to see.

Plenty of people who are blind type out text messages using VoiceOver, the speech synthesizer that comes with every iPhone (VoiceOver parrots every letter the blind user types into a text message). I’ve learned how to use VoiceOver but I find it cumbersome to hunt and peck to type texts when I can’t see the letters on the screen.

Siri to the rescue! I’m guessing Siri might be particularly helpful for older adults who are diagnosed with macular degeneration, so I’m offering step-by-step instructions here. If you are blind and have an iPhone, or you are helping someone who is blind use their iPhone, you need to make sure you have VoiceOver turned on. Go to the post I wrote about how people who are blind use iPhones to learn how to turn VoiceOver on.

Got VoiceOver on? Okay, now for my “Text with Siri” lesson. For this lesson, I assume you already have some people in your “contacts” list, so we’ll start with learning how to turn Siri on.

1. Press down the home key to get your iPhone going –that is the big round button (well, It’s about ½ inch in diameter, I guess) right below your iPhone screen. You can actually feel this button go down if you press it, it’s a real physical button.
2. Double tap anywhere on the screen to unlock the screen. VoiceOver will call out “screen unlocked.”
3. Swipe your pointer finger quickly from the left of the screen to the right of the screen a few times until you hear VoiceOver call out “settings!”
4. If you get overzealous and go past “settings,” swipe your finger from the right side of the screen to the left to go back until you hear “settings.”
5. Once you’re sure you’ve heard settings, double tap anywhere on the screen to activate settings.
6. Now swipe your pointer finger quickly from the left of the screen to the right of the screen over a few times until you hear VoiceOver call out “general!”
7. Double tap anywhere on the screen to activate the “general” button.
8. Swipe your pointer finger quickly from the left of the screen to the right of the screen a few times until you hear VoiceOver either call out “Siri on” or “Siri off.”
9. If VoiceOver says “Siri on” that means Siri is already turned on.
10. If VoiceOver says “Siri off” you need to double tap on the screen, and when it says “Siri on” you know Siri is on.

Phew. Still with me? Okay, Siri is on your phone now. Here’s how you use her to send a text message.

1. Hold down the home button (remember that’s the button you can feel below your phone screen) and keep holding it down until you hear a double bell sound.
2. Don’t let go of that button! Hold it down while you tell Siri who it is you want to text (if the person you want to text isn’t in your “contacts,” you can say their cell phone number). For this exercise, I said, “Text Jackie.”
3. When you are finished giving your command, release the button.
4. You won’t have to hold the button down anymore, Siri knows you’re there now. you’ll hear another double bell tone, and Siri will ask, “Okay, what do you want to say to Jackie?”
5. Remember, you don’t have to hold the button down anymore, just hold the phone and tell her what you want to text. For this lesson, I simply said “Practicing.”
6. Siri comes back to tell you what your message reads “Your message to Jackie says, ‘Practicing.’ Ready to send it?”
7. You say “yes.”
8. Siri says, “Okay, I’ll send it,” and sure enough, in a mere second or two, you hear a whoosh sound. Your message is sent.

You can say no to sending, of course, and I’ve even learned how to change the wording when I misspeak or cancel the message altogether. But that’s a lesson for another post. To find out if anyone has texted you back, hold down that button and tell Siri, “Read my messages.”

One last tip: If you are not blind and have been helping someone try this out, all you have to do to take VoiceOver off your iPhone is tell Siri, “Turn VoiceOver off.” She’ll do it for you. TTFN!

1 thing all women can learn from the NY Fashion Week model who has Down syndrome

by Elsa Remak

I am pleased to welcome Rachel Gaddis as a guest blogger today. Rachel is a junior majoring in mass communications at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkansas. She is supporting the development department as a public relations and corporate relations intern. Rachel, a strong writer with a passion for current events, will be interning with us until December.

by Rachel Gaddis

As much as I love being fashionable, I can’t say that I have ever had much of an interest in New York Fashion Week. I have a stereotypical idea of what it is like: a thin runway, size zero models, expensive clothing pieces that I would never think of putting together (or wear out in public!).

I even scrunch my nose a bit at the idea of the models on the runway. Why do they do it? I remember the few times I considered being in a pageant. Five seconds of thinking about subjecting myself to others’ critiques was all it took for me to back out. If I am already so critical of my appearance, why would I want the world — or even the people in my small hometown — looking at me?

But then, at this year’s New York Fashion Week, an 18-year-old named Madeline Stuart walked in the New York fashion show for FTL MODA. More noticeable than the Hendrik Vermeulen she was wearing was her confidence. It was evident in her poise, faint smile, sure steps, and high-fives with spectators halfway down the runway. With literally the world watching her, she was owning her beauty. This young woman is braver than I could ever hope to be — I can imagine I would have been feeling pretty sick and might have even tripped over my toes!

Madeline Stuart is an Australian model with Down syndrome whose modeling career took off after her Facebook pictures went viral earlier this year. She is the second young woman with Down syndrome to walk in NY Fashion week (behind actress Jamie Brewer) and is pursuing modeling as a career. She hopes to change people’s perception of Down syndrome, to stop discrimination, and most of all to encourage everyone to love and be loved.

In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Madeline’s mom said this about her daughter’s growing popularity: “You know why Maddie is so loved? Because she loves herself. Maddie truly loves herself.” My heart sank when I read those words. I have the worst self-talk of anyone I know. I am ashamed to say how much I compare myself to other women, how much I agonize over what I believe others think of me. I can’t say that I truly love who I am or that I consider myself beautiful.

But then I look at Madeline’s pictures on her website and social media accounts,and I see a young woman who can claim something much more valuable — and lasting — than perfect hair, the best body, or the cutest wardrobe. I see a beautiful human being who has struggled and overcome. I see a girl who refuses to believe she is anything less than amazing. I see self-acceptance. I see hope.

Madeline reminds me that I have a choice. I can choose to throw away the narrow view of beauty I have clung to for so long, and all the comparisons that come with it, and choose to love myself. Regardless of whether people will love me because of that, I need to love and own who I am.

So thank you, Madeline Stuart! You are changing the way the fashion world defines beauty, and, perhaps more importantly, the way we as women see ourselves.

Understanding Down syndrome

Experiencing architecture with a disability

by Beth Finke

Guess who spent Saturday afternoon playing the very same piano architect Frank Lloyd Wright practiced on 100+ years ago?

Me!

The Frank Lloyd Wright Trust is one of 31 cultural organizations that are partners in Chicago’s ADA 25 for 25 Cultural Access Project, and to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the trust is offering special ASL and touch-tours of its historic sites.

The goal of the 25 for 25 Project is to help at least 25 cultural organizations in Chicago commit to improving accessibility for visitors with disabilities in 2015 in some concrete way, and then putting plans in place to continue to take steps to improve accessibility after this anniversary year.

Last Saturday my friend Linda Downing Miller, who lives in Oak Park, Illinois, accompanied me on a special tour of Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio there. Linda earned an M.F.A. from Queens University of Charlotte — her fiction is forthcoming in Fiction International and appears in the current issue of Crab Orchard Review. She’s a fine writer, and I was delighted when she offered to write this guest post describing our tour from her point of, ahem, view.

Beth playing Frank Lloyd Wright’s piano

Touching moments in architecture

by Linda Downing Miller

Twenty years ago, I was infatuated with the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Moving to Oak Park, Illinois, can do that to you.

The village has a wealth of Wright-designed spaces, and I toured as many as I could in my first years here. My husband and I must have taken every visitor we had through Wright’s home and studio, restored to its appearance when he last lived there in 1909.

When Beth invited me to go with her on a Touch Tour of the home and studio last Saturday, I said yes mostly for the chance to spend time with her. I figured I’d already seen and heard enough about Wright’s work: his horizontal lines and ribbon windows and half-hidden entrances, reached by walking a “path of discovery” that usually includes a turn or two.

The Touch Tour took me on a new path. I was one of a handful of people accompanying friends or family members who are blind or have low vision. The Frank Lloyd Wright Trust offered the tour in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, part of ADA 25 Chicago — a larger project to improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. Being Beth’s companion on the tour, alongside her Seeing Eye dog, Whitney, allowed me to “re-see” Wright’s spaces and consider the challenge of making them accessible through other senses.

Beth feeling some sculptured parts of the exterior of the building

Fellow writers might appreciate this observation: details, creative comparisons, and specific word choices helped to convey Wright’s work. Our tour guide, Laura Dodd, explained the position of design elements in relation to bodies (“about neck high”). She used similes (wood beams arranged “like an asterisk”). I told Beth that Wright’s intricate, wood-carved designs on the dining room and playroom ceilings were a bit like the wooden trivets she’d felt in the gift shop. A tour volunteer described the vaulted ceiling in the children’s playroom “like a whiskey barrel.”

After thinking about Laura’s description of the way the Wrights’ piano sat in that room with only the keyboard showing, the back half hidden behind the wall, one of the visitors who couldn’t see articulated it more clearly for all of us: “You mean, it’s embedded in the wall.” Yes.

Enthusiasm, curiosity, puzzlement and understanding moved across people’s faces as they listened and asked questions, and as they touched things: fireplace tiles, wall coverings, sculptures, spindles, glass windows and Wright’s famously uncomfortable straight-backed dining chairs. Some people lingered over each touch opportunity. Others eagerly applied their fingers and moved on. (Guess which style was Beth’s?)

She and I talked afterward about the different frames of reference people might have brought to the experience. Beth knew something about architecture before she lost her sight. Other visitors may have been born blind. Laura is the Director of Operations and Guest Experience for the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust, and she asked us for feedback during and after the tour. (The Trust plans additional Touch Tours, and American Sign Language Tours, at its historic sites.)

Our group’s consensus was that she’d done a wonderful job. I thought the three guide dogs in the group also handled themselves well in close proximity.

One of the highlights for me and Beth was when Laura invited her to sit at the piano in the children’s playroom. After instructing everyone else not to pay attention, Beth put her fingers on the keys and ran through a short, jazzy tune. When she’d finished, she and I exclaimed over the fact that Frank himself no doubt played those keys. I felt the ghost of my old infatuation. On our way downstairs, Beth reached up to touch the back end of the piano, suspended over our heads, and continued on her path of discovery.

Photos courtesy of Christena Gunther, Founder & Co-Chair of the Chicago Cultural Accessibility Consortium.

16 ways to make your kitchen more accessible

by Sara Croft

Approximately 30 million Americans use wheelchairs, and all of those people and their families need accessible housing. That number will continue to increase as seniors retain independent living in their homes. One important way to increase independent living is making a home accessible, and one room that is especially important to accommodate is the kitchen.

With all the advances in accessible design, a beautiful and efficient kitchen can be designed to be accessible for everyone that lives in a home whether or not they have a disability. Here are a few tips to consider when designing an accessible kitchen for wheelchair users:

1. Typical countertops are positioned at a height of 36”. To make countertops accessible the work surface should be installed at a 34” height, but ideally you would measure individual comfort ranges to determine the appropriate height for the person using the wheelchair or walker.
2. Include pull-out shelves in your design — a shelf that comes out of the countertop can provide an easily accessible working space to prepare food.
3. Kitchen sinks should have an open space beneath them to provide wheelchair or walker accessibility. Knee clearance for a sink needs to be at least 27” high, 8” deep at the knees or 11” deep for children.
4. Place the drain in the rear of the sink so the piping underneath will not prevent a person in a wheelchair from rolling underneath.
5. Choose a single lever faucet — they’re more accessible.
6. Touch control faucets are also available –they allow the user to turn on and off the faucet with one touch.
7. Installing the faucet to the side of the sink may make it more accessible for some people.
8. Electric powered adjustable kitchen wall cabinets that lower and raise the cabinet height with a touch of a button are costly, but they can make the cabinets accessible to more users.
9. Spice racks and cutting boards and other often-used items should be placed within arms reach.
10. Looped cabinet pulls are easier to use than standard knobs — no need to close your fist or twist, grasp or use pinching motions to use a looped pull.
11. A 36” wide doorway makes the kitchen accessible for a wheelchair or walker user, but 42” width is more comfortable.
12. A lever-style handle will make a door much easier to open.
13. Use swing clear hinges on doors to make traveling through the opening easier.
14. Raise the dishwasher 6” to 8” off the floor to make the dishwasher accessible from either side and increase access.
15. Bottom-drawer freezer style refrigerators give wheelchair -users access to the freezer.
16. Tactile controls such as raised buttons or dials with directional indicators that click into position at each setting can increase safety.

I have the INDATA Project to thank for suggesting devices like the touch control faucets and electric powered adjustable cabinets I mentioned in this post. the Indiana Assistive Technology Act (INDATA) Project started in 2007 when Easter Seals Crossroads partnered with the State of Indiana, Bureau of Rehabilitative Services to increase access and awareness of assistive technology.

As you can tell from this post, there are many ways in which a kitchen can be made accessible for wheelchair users — get cooking!

Here are ways to find, buy or adapt an accessible home.

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This device lets my child speak with her eyes

by Beth Finke

Bernhard Walke’s guest post earlier this month mentioned that their daughter Elena receives assistive technology services at Easter Seals DuPage & the Fox Valley Region and is learning to use a device I hadn’t heard of before. He’s back again this week to explain how Elena uses her beautiful eyes to communicate with the help of a Tobii Dynavox Communicator.

by Bernhard Walke

Elena

One compliment our daughter Elena receives most often is about her deep caramel colored eyes. My mother-in-law calls them “ojitos peruanos” or Peruvian eyes. Elena inherited them from her mother and her grandfather – my wife Rosa and my father-in-law.

To me, Elena’s eyes are bright, expressive, complex, and mysterious. My daughter’s eyes are a passageway to her mind. She sees them as more than aesthetic — they are the tools she uses to communicate.

Elena is nonverbal, so she uses her eyes to “point” to objects to indicate her choices. Does she want milk or juice to drink? Would she prefer to wear a blue dress or a purple dress to school? Additionally, looking up is an affirmative response and looking to the side or down is a negative. Movements such as this get us through the mundane day-to-day life, but Elena is 4 years old now and will be starting kindergarten next year. Her communication needs will be more complex.

In preparation for starting school next year, she has been working with a Tobii Eye Gaze computer, which is essentially a computer that tracks her eye movement. As a result, she is able to say things such as, “I have a question,” “That’s silly,” or “Something hurts.” She also works on identifying colors, zoo animals, and how to spell her name.

Considering that Elena does not have the oral muscle control to form words at this point, the possibilities are very exciting for us as parents. Elena realized the power of her words when she brought her Tobii to school for speech therapy and kept selecting the “Something hurts” icon. Her teachers and aids asked her questions and Elena responded, “I feel sick.”

“Do you think you need to go home?” inquired her teachers.

“Yes,” Elena responded.

Her grandparents were called to pick her up and Elena was infuriated. She loves school and didn’t want to leave her classmates. Elena turned out to be fine, and we laugh about the situation now, but we realize that this might have been one of the first times in her life that she realized that her voice was heard and what she said mattered.

When I explain what the Tobii allows Elena to say just based on the recognition of her eye movement, people are amazed with its capabilities and the fortune of living in a time when such technology is available. However, the device does come with challenges. Like myself, Elena is a raging extrovert and loves to be in the middle of the action. The Tobii, although it gives her a voice, creates a physical barrier between her and her audience. Just like her dad, she would much rather be face to face than face to screen.

The Tobii has some of the same shortcomings that other computer devices have: battery life, weight, lack of user friendliness, the time it takes to boot up, and so on. But despite all of its shortcomings, technology is an incredible tool for my daughter. This was demonstrated over the summer when her speech pathologist tracked me down at her extended school year program. She wanted to show me how Elena was using a Tobii to spell on a computer. Elena was learning to spell her name. “EEEEELLLLLLEEEENNNNNAAAAAA” was printed on a piece of paper.

The speech therapist mentioned something that we seldom hear, and her words confirmed what I’ve known for years. “Playing with letters like this is developmentally appropriate for her age.”

Do pwd have more grit? Take this Grit Test to find out!

by Beth Finke

Angela Duckworth talks about the Grit Test

Our local NPR affiliate WBEZ substituted special programming for their regular shows on Labor Day this year, and an episode of the Ted Radio Hour they aired caught my, well, my ear. The episode was about success – what the word means, and what makes us successful:

Success has become synonymous with how much money you make and how high you climb the career ladder. But in what way can we define success beyond those boundaries? In this hour, TED speakers share what makes for an accomplished life.

Psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth was one of the speakers. She is an assistant professor in the psychology department at University of Pennsylvania, and after studying rookie teachers in tough areas to see which ones would last the school year; kids in spelling bees to predict who would go farthest; cadets at the West Point Military Academy to predict which would finish their training; and corporate salespeople to predict who would keep their jobs, she determined that “grit” is a better indicator of future success than factors such as IQ or family income. If that’s true, I know a lot of people with disabilities who oughta feel pretty dang successful right now, because man oh man, do they have grit.

In Angela’s TED Talk, she defined grit as:

• having passion to complete goals
• having perseverance for very long-term goals
• having stamina
• sticking with your future, day in and day out

“Grit is living life like it’s a marathon,” Angela said. “Not a sprint.”

The TED Talk emcee did mention that listeners could take the grit test at home, so I decided to use my talking computer to check it out. The quiz asks you to answer questions in relation to people in general rather than in relation to just the people you hang out with. It asks you to rank yourself (5 for “sounds just like me” or 1 for “not me at all,” for instance) on questions like how much a new idea or project distracts you from the one you’re working on now, whether you finish what you begin, whether you’d describe yourself as diligent or not, etc.

In the end the quiz calculates you on a scale from 1 (not gritty) to 5 (extremely gritty). My grit score ended up as 3.88.

“You are grittier than at least 70% of the US population,” it said.

Does that qualify me as a success? I don’t know. One thing I do know is this: people with disabilities do tend to have more grit than average people, and I don’t need a quiz to tell me that!

What’s that handsome “Private Practice” actor doing these days?

by Beth Finke

If you watched the Grey’s Anatomy spin-off show Private Practice when it was on ABC a few years ago, you know who Dr. Gabriel Fife is. The genetics specialist was introduced in the third season as a love interest who worked for a rival medical practice. The character used a wheelchair, and so does the actor who played him: Michael Patrick Thornton.

Michael Patrick Thornton

Private Practice went off the air in 2013, but national TV watchers loss is Chicago’s gain: Michael Patrick Thornton is a native Chicagoan, and now that he’s back in town full-time, those of us who live in Chicago get to see him live on stage here.

I myself appeared on stage last week at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre with Michael Patrick Thornton, and after sharing the stage with him, you know, I just call him Michael. We were there with other disability advocates at “Greater Together,” Chicago’s first Cultural Accessibility Summit.

My job was to give a short testimonial on how important it is for civic and cultural leaders (hundreds of them were there in the audience) to support accessible programming at the museums, theaters and foundations they work for. Michael was there in his real-life role as the Artistic Director & Co-founder of The Gift Theatre in Chicago.

Michael Patrick Thornton’s interest in theater started when he was in high school, and he and William Nedved co-founded The Gift Theatre Company in 2001. Two years later, Michael suffered a spinal stroke that almost killed him. He was 23 years old at the time, and the stroke left him paralyzed from the neck down. “It took a while for doctors to figure out what happened to me — it was very Dr. House-like,” he told the audience last week, and you couldn’t miss the hint of dark humor in his voice.

The Gift Theatre will celebrate its 15th anniversary this upcoming season, and when I talked with Michael after our presentation last week he told me how thrilled he is to be directing the world premiere of David Rabe’s Good for Otto at Gift next month. Michael played Iago in Gift’s production of Othello last year, and in March 2016, he’ll have the lead role in Gift’s production of Richard III, which will be staged at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre to accommodate larger audiences. Here’s a prepared statement from Michael about his beloved theater’s upcoming season:

Great theater asks great questions. Our milestone anniversary season asks: ‘What does it mean to be human?’ In perfect circuitousness, we begin where many of us first met — at Steppenwolf. In collaboration with our lead production sponsor, The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, we will present a definitive ‘Richard III’ for the ages, performed in conjunction with Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary. It will re-define what disability, ability, and Shakespeare’s villain can look like.

Good for Otto opens at The Gift Theatre in Chicago’s Jefferson park neighborhood next month, and Richard III opens in March 2016 at Steppenwolf’s Garage Theatre at 1650 N. Halsted in Chicago. Mark your calendars and look for me there in the audience.

9/11: A time of reflection

by Col. David Sutherland

An “Alive Day,” a term well-known to those who are or have been in the military, is the anniversary of a day that you came close to death. It is not cause for an open celebration; rather, it serves as a day of reflection. In 2007, James Gandolfini produced the HBO documentary “Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq”. He did a remarkable job capturing the essence of Alive Days for a generation impacted by the shockwaves of September 11.

September 11 is akin to an Alive Day and a time that veterans and military families remember because so many of us are inexplicitly linked to it. Approximately 2.5 million service members deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq in what is now known as the post-9/11 era, and the veteran population from this era is expected to nearly double in size by 2043.

I led many of these service members during service in Iraq, including as the Brigade Commander in the volatile Diyala Province for 15 months in 2006-2007.  I watched my troops carry out remarkable feats of bravery and perform selfless acts of courage.  They demonstrated all the qualities one could want in the toughest of situations – smarts, guts and compassion. I feel the same way about the first responders whose selfless actions saved so many lives on September 11, 2001, even as many gave their own.

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius is attributed with the saying, “When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” His words capture the essence of Alive Day.

On September 11, I will always arise remembering those with whom I served. And I encourage you to take a look at this ABC News segment about “Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq.” It’s a powerful reminder of the phenomenal men and women who answered the call of service in the post-9/11 era and did their part to live up to the Warrior Ethos.

Life as a first-time parent can be like playing house

by Yolanda Green

Playing House on the USA Network

We are delighted by the response to our partnership with the USA Network to raise awareness of child developmental milestones. In anticipation for the season finale of PLAYING HOUSE airing tonight at 10/9c on the USA Network, it is a pleasure to introduce Loren Hynes, vice president of Corporate Social Responsibility at NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment.

Life as a first-time parent can be like playing house

by Loren Hynes

Being a mother is no easy task; and you’re never fully prepared for motherhood.  At the hospital when they hand you your screaming, naked, reddish bundle of joy, you half expect them to take the baby back because they’ve found out you’re not qualified for the job. Alas, they actually let you leave with a tiny human being (and, unfortunately, an instruction manual is not provided).

Raising my two-year-old is so much harder than I ever thought it would be, but I love it and wouldn’t trade it for the world.  As a first-time parent, I often feel like I have no idea what I am doing.  I try to do all the right things, read all the right books, ask the pediatrician all the right questions – but it’s tough to stay on top of it all.  Experiencing the ups and downs of new parenthood with my own family has allowed me to empathize with the characters on USA Network’s PLAYING HOUSE, in which two best friends, Maggie Caruso (Lennon Parham) and Emma Crawford (Jessica St. Clair), unexpectedly have to raise a baby together.  Throughout the show, they navigate their way through life as co-parents to Maggie’s daughter, Charlotte.

In addition to my role as mother of a toddler, I am the Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility at NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment, a job I also love dearly.   In my position, I’ve had the exciting opportunity of working with Easter Seals on a partnership with USA’s PLAYING HOUSE to raise awareness of the importance of monitoring early childhood development and to provide critical information, resources and support to families.  (USA is a program service of NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment, a division of NBCUniversal.)  Our season-long partnership has included PSAs with co-stars Lennon Parham and Jessica St. Clair and special in-show story integration so that viewers at home would be inspired to monitor their own children’s development.  We are proud to partner with Easter Seals to use our platforms to inform and support our viewers, and, as a mother, I can say that I am personally grateful for their services.

As I’ve seen from watching my own child develop and change, kids grow up so fast that it’s easy to miss important childhood development milestones.  Every year more than one million children will enter kindergarten with an undiagnosed developmental delay. I’m glad there are programs like Make the First Five Count so that parents can track and monitor their child’s development before they enter the school system. Easter Seals’ Make the First Five Count program has developed a free online screening tool for tracking childhood development during the first five years of your child’s life. I would encourage any parent to have this screening on your checklist for your child. It’s free and it’s vital, as the first five years of your child’s life lay the foundation for their long-term well-being and overall success.

Tune into PLAYING HOUSE’s second season finale tonight at 10/9c and you’ll laugh along with Maggie and Emma as they raise baby Charlotte. Follow Easter Seals on Twitter (@Easter_Seals) and Facebook for updates about tracking your child’s developmental milestones!
For more information about PLAYING HOUSE and the integration of Easter Seals’ Make the First Five Count program please visit easterseals.com/mtffc .