Introducing KIDMAP

Creating inclusive children’s media is a lot like creating a beautiful garden. It requires research, planning, and mindful effort.

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center is pleased to announce our partnership with the Kids’ Inclusive and Diverse Media Action Project (KIDMAP), formerly known as Diversity in Apps. This collective, made up of media creators, producers, researchers, educators, and parents, is committed to putting all kids on the digital media map. They’ve just launched a new website, www.joinkidmap.org, and are spearheading a number of initiatives that support the creation of diverse and inclusive children’s media through research, best practices, and collaboration.

• The Diverse and Inclusive Growth (DIG) Toolkit will equip creators of children’s media with a roadmap to creating products that are more equitable, diverse, and inclusive. It is organized around nine milestones in the production process, from hiring a creative team to marketing a final product.
• The DIG Checklist was designed to help reviewers, researchers, parents, librarians, and educators identify and recognize high-quality, inclusive children’s digital media. Use the checklist as a rubric for evaluating or rating children’s media. Producers and creators can use the checklist as a guide to  producing high-quality children’s media that is inclusive, equitable, and accessible.
• Join Kabir Seth and Amy Kraft for the Diversity Sauce Podcast. Each week, they discuss the current topics of diversity and inclusion in the news and interview key players in the children’s media space. Guests have included Cooney Center Senior Fellow Vikki Katz, CommonSense Media Director of Research Michael Robb, and Tech with Kids founder Jinny Gudmundsen.

And be sure to sign up for the KIDMAP newsletter, which features a weekly roundup of the latest news and research on equity, diversity, and inclusion across children’s entertainment.

Stay tuned for more news about these intiatives in coming weeks, and in the meantime, please check out the KIDMAP website to learn more about the great work they are doing to promote the creation of more inclusive media for all children.