Project Understood is a campaign that redefines the power of voice technology, the power of data, and the power of people with Down syndrome - simultaneously. Our campaign reimagines voice technology, turning a tool that offers basic convenience into a tool that offers life-changing independence. We reimagined the role of data in advertising, recruiting the Down syndrome community to donate their voice data and used it as the key to unlock access to voice assistants. Finally, we reimagined the role of people with Down syndrome by turning them into Google’s teachers – proving the capabilities of this much stigmatized community.

With 8 billion voice assistants in use globally by 2023, the future will be voice-first, but that future doesn’t include people with Down syndrome. Voice technology often doesn’t understand the community’s unique speech patterns, leaving them behind in the voice revolution. As a marginalized community, their needs were never considered.

The Canadian Down Syndrome Society (CDSS) had two problems to solve on a minuscule budget:

1- Make voice technology accessible to people with Down syndrome

2- Shift perceptions of a stigmatized community by showing how access to voice technology can lead to life-changing independence.

Despite misperceptions and stigma, young adults in the Down syndrome community are entirely capable of living independently. To achieve self-sufficiency, they simply require more reminders, structure and routine - unique needs that voice technology held the promise of answering. Which meant that access to voice assistants could offer life-changing independence for an entire community.

Google’s voice assistant is Canada’s market leader, yet currently misunderstands one in three words of a person with Down syndrome. This made Google the ideal partner for CDSS as they'd have the greatest impact on the Down syndrome community in Canada.

Introducing Project Understood, a campaign that turns people with Down syndrome into Google’s teachers, using their voices to train Google’s speech recognition model to understand them. Making voice technology more inclusive, by including people with Down syndrome in creating the solution.

Project Understood is a first-of-its-kind campaign, breaking new ground in the power of voice technology– shifting from basic convenience to improving the quality of life for an overlooked community. Our campaign didn’t just advocate or educate, it created utility while simultaneously empowering a community– giving people with Down syndrome the agency to teach a world-leading technology corporation and turning their would-be limitation, their speech, into a valuable data-asset.

Voice technology requires millions of data points (human voices) to perform optimally. Unfortunately, for those with Down syndrome, the small size of their community means these AI systems lack the data they need to reliably understand them. So, our strategy was to fill this data gap by directly recruiting the niche Down syndrome community, to collect a large enough data sample that Google’s voice algorithm could start to recognize and learn the unique patterns in their speech.

Data collection was critical because it could unlock voice technology for people with Down syndrome – giving them access to lifechanging independence. Adults with Down syndrome are capable of living independently but require more structure and reminders to cook, clean and manage everyday tasks. Voice assistants would be an invaluable tool by allowing them to set reminders, build to-do lists, and access support – all independently without relying on caregivers.

Phase 1: Recruiting the Community

The campaign launched during Canadian Down Syndrome Week, with social videos shedding light on the inaccessibility of voice technology and its potential impact. The videos were a recruitment tool, mobilizing the community to donate their voices to train Google and making them part of the solution. With only $1000 in media, we targeted this niche, tight knit Down syndrome community organically, knowing the more they engaged, the more we’d reach them. We also targeted Down syndrome groups across North America through email and organic social, who in turn engaged another 735 international Down syndrome groups.

Phase 2: Changing Public Perception

Earned media and organic sharing further amplified our message, to change perceptions of people with Down syndrome by depicting the community in a new light - advocating for their right to live independently and empowered as the teachers of a multinational technology corporation.

Project Understood achieved global reach. ROI is incalculable, but on a cost per impression basis, 775,000 impressions per $ spent isn’t bad. Other campaign results:

Recruiting the community:

•-826,107 organic reach on Facebook (a 678% increase from the CDSS’s best performing campaign) and 82,995 engagements - with just $1,000 in media

-30+ countries and 735 Down syndrome organizations participated

-Over one million voices were donated to Google’s speech recognition database

Changing public perceptions:

-775 million earned media impressions globally.

Project Understood is making voice technology inclusive for the Down syndrome community. Google and CDSS presented their research at the UN on March 20th, 2020, calling on all technology companies to make voice technology accessible. In the Spring of 2021, Google launched a new beta voice assistant, based on the data we helped capture, showing Project Understood’s long-term impact on a vulnerable community.