The tagline of this year's Toy Show is 'let's all watch it together', which is why its so heartening to see such an effort being made to include people from the Deaf and ISL Community, as well as Blind and Vision Impaired kids and grown-ups.
This year, Amanda Coogan, Jason Maguire, and Ciara Grant will be presenting The Late Late Toy Show live with Irish Sign Language (ISL) on the RTÉ News channel and RTÉ Player. The ISL show will also be available to stream shortly after the live broadcast.
Audio Description (AD) will be available for the repeat on Sunday at 3.15pm and on Monday night, and afterward on RTÉ Player. A fully accessible version (with subtitles, ISL, and AD) will be broadcast on Wednesday 30th November, which will also be available to stream.
Coogan has become a regular fixture of the show and has trended on social media each year thanks to her excellent and enthusiastic presenting.
Amanda is a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults), a qualified ISL and British Sign Language Interpreter, a renowned performance artist, and a member of Aosdána.
Speaking ahead of this year's Wizard of Oz-themed event, Coogan told RTÉ LifeStyle how much it means to her to interpret the show.
"My aim interpreting the Toy Show is really that the kids at home and anyone who uses Sign Language has the same kind of experience as hearing people," says Coogan. "So, really, as much fun, as much tears. So, really, my aim is only to match what the show is."
"To have Sign Language of the Toy Show is so important," she continues. "It just means that Ireland is inclusive as a society, you know? That we're welcoming in the deaf community. We're saying, 'come on, have this great night that everyone talks about', and that was never accessible before so it's really fantastic."
Speaking on the reactions she gets from kids, Coogan says that as a CODA herself, she has a lot of children of deaf adults reach out to her.
"I get a lot of CODAs coming up to me and saying, 'oh my goodness, I never realised that I could watch the Toy Show with my mam and dad and they'd know what's going on' or that it's OK to be a CODA, that it can be fun, that it can be all of those things. You know, seeing it is believing it."
Watch our interview with Amanda Coogan at the top of the page.
