In Canada, despite a growing movement towards diversity and inclusion, bias continues to be pervasive against people living with disabilities. Stigma and stereotypes impact people with Down syndrome and their parents at every stage of their lives – from the moment of diagnosis through adulthood. While Canada has made great strides in building an inclusive society that values people of different races, genders, and sexual orientations, there is still a very long way to go to include people with disabilities.

CDSS had a goal of raising awareness of the abilities of their community, on a minuscule budget. But there were two issues:

Issue #1: Too Broad. With a small budget, the CDSS didn’t have the resources to break through to a mass audience. We needed to hone our efforts in two ways: we focused our efforts on people with Down syndrome and their parents, not the general public, and used our strategic process to map a journey of key ownable moments.

Issue #2: Too Expected. The desired creative approach was generic, and frequently employed by disability advocacy groups, “see the ability”. But we knew that simply saying it doesn’t make people believe it.

CDSS is “pro-information”, combating the stereotypes and stigma of Down syndrome. Our objective was to transform the perception of the Down syndrome community from a focus on a “see the ability” awareness campaign for the general public to actions designed to empower a community at key moments in their journey; to demonstrate their humanity instead of merely talking about it. Our efforts have closed gaps in support, information, and resources that make leading a full life more challenging for people with Down syndrome.

To better understand that audience and the moments when we could connect with them, we mapped their journey based on moments when our audience needed information and support. Moments our campaign could own.

Parents and individuals with Down syndrome have to constantly fight against misinformation and stereotypes. To support them, we went beyond saying what they can do, and instead demonstrated it. We decided to let people with Down syndrome speak for themselves.

Making voice technology accessible

With improving life expectancy, this generation of people with Down syndrome will be the first to outlive their parents, creating an urgent need for technologies that could help them live independently. Voice assistants could offer life-changing support, if only they could understand people with Down syndrome.

Proving the link between fitness and cognition

Fitness holds the power to improve cognition for people with Down syndrome, but it’s never been proven, so we recruited 200 people with Down syndrome to do just that.

Connecting the community to employers

North America is facing a historic labour shortage, yet over 50% of people with Down syndrome struggle to find paid, meaningful work. Employers had no idea this workforce existed, let alone where to connect with them.

Our creative platform demonstrated what people with Down syndrome can do. A humanizing approach employed throughout the journey.

We partnered with GoogleAI to change their voice assistant forever

Introducing Project Understood, a campaign that turns people with Down syndrome into Google’s teachers, using their voices to train speech recognition AI to understand them.

We partnered with Fitbit to prove the link between fitness and cognition

Introducing Mindsets, a globally unprecedented study that has proven the link between exercise and cognition for the Down syndrome community.[1]

We partnered with LinkedIn to connect the community to employers

Introducing inployable: The world’s first employment network for people with Down syndrome on LinkedIn.

1. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/23/7121

CDSS has become a leader in advocacy not only in Canada, but across North America and indeed globally. We are empowering a community and building lasting change. Our campaigns have transformed the world and the brands we have partnered with.

Results:

• Earned 3.6 billion impressions; generating global awareness for an oft forgotten and ignored community.

• Provided the data to allow Google to launch a new beta of its voice assistant, Improved Google voice recognition for 78 million people with atypical speech.

• Proven the importance of fitness for people within the Down syndrome community. We published a medical paper that changed Down syndrome treatment forever.

• Connected the Down syndrome community to over 700 employers through the world’s first employment network for people with Down syndrome on LinkedIn.

• Increased donations by 429%, the highest level in CDSS’ history.