PSA For World Down Syndrome Day

March 21, 2024 8:54 AM

For 3/21 World Down Syndrome Day, the NDSS created "Assume That I Can So Maybe I Will" A video PSA which is a short course in the importance of presumed competence starring Madison Tevlin, who was in the 2023 movie Champions.
posted by plinth (11 comments total)

I loved this ad so much.

For World Down Syndrome Day, Ruby's Rainbow, a charity that provides scholarships to adults with down syndrome to attend college, does an annual fundraiser. Their work is really cool and it's so awesome to see so many people have their dreams supported.

I don't have anyone with Down Syndrome in my life but I remember going to high school with kids with down syndrome (in the 90s) and watching how they were separated from the rest of the kids and teased by some of them (though that was generally not accepted, even then). I also knew a little bit about the history of how people with down syndrome have been treated. In the early days of Instagram, for some reason some accounts run by the parents of several kids with down syndrome came across my discovery page (including the one run by Liz Platcha, the woman who started Ruby's Rainbow after her daughter Ruby was born with down syndrome) and I have followed them for years. It's so amazing to see what people can do if they are given the support and care they need to do it.

I think my interest in down syndrome was spurred by that show Life Goes On with the character Corky in it, who had down syndrome, which I must have watched when I was like 10 years old. Like that ad, it just goes to show that representations of all sorts of people in our media is so frigging important.
posted by urbanlenny at 9:49 AM on March 21 [11 favorites]

YouTube version for people on networks with TikTok blocked.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:29 AM on March 21 [4 favorites]

I love that video so much!
posted by BibiRose at 2:07 PM on March 21

I got to know a really cool young woman with Down Syndrome a few years ago during the time she was navigating becoming an adult and finding her independence. She is completing a 4 year college program now and interning in public policy, building on her years of advocacy experience at the state capitol for people with disabilities. I know she must have seen this video today and loved it.
posted by hydropsyche at 3:24 PM on March 21 [2 favorites]

I started working with/for people with cognitive differences in 1984 and I honestly don't think that 40 years later there is any greater percentage of educators, parents and the general public who accept the ideas of, "Presume Competence, Support Independence."

One of my favorite ways to start certain trainings for educators is to tell them, "Raise your hand if you've ever been outsmarted by someone who is supposed to have an IQ lower than yours.

Yeah, 100% of you. So we all agree, we are dealing with smart kids. Always remember that."
posted by ITravelMontana at 7:09 PM on March 21 [5 favorites]

Yesterday I realised (was told) that the date is (like π-day a week earlier) mnemonic: Trisomy 21 . . . 3/21. Inspiring and fuck yeh as Madison Tevlin and the messaging is, I think often of young Liam who was born in 2016 with an extra chr.21 but was too small to have the heart surgery required by his atrioventricular septal defect (AVSD). The problem couldn't be repaired until he'd gotten big enough and strong enough for the pediatric cardiologist to use their smallest scalpels and retractors. Heart conditions are present in 50% of folks with Down syndrome. Liam is doing okay now.
posted by BobTheScientist at 5:57 AM on March 22 [4 favorites]

Skiing Life Is for Everyone
posted by lalochezia at 6:15 AM on March 22 [1 favorite]

In Norway there's a campaign for wearing dissimilar socks that day, but sadly all my socks are identical.
posted by Harald74 at 7:44 AM on March 22 [1 favorite]

But I have a question: As a bartender, how do handle a customer that obviously is cognitively different, but of drinking age? I worked at a bowling alley years ago where we had a fun-loving group come in and play weekly, and they were delightful customers, but luckily none of them ever ordered a beer or I would have to think up an answer real quick. I feel like it's qualitatively different from discussing Shakespeare or teaching boxing, and I would hate to cause harm to someone who can't make a responsible decision about drinking alcohol. Or am I making a problem out of something that isn't?
posted by Harald74 at 7:54 AM on March 22 [1 favorite]

Harald74 - OP here, also the parent of an adult with Down syndrome. I have an answer for you that my spouse suggested unprompted last night: for younger people who have cognitive impairments there is a wide swath of commonality between them and people who are very old and are in cognitive decline. How would you treat a 90 year old who came in and ordered a beer? Maybe that should be your guide.

Also, I should say that even though I posted this, I have mixed feelings about the video. I wrote them up in this thread on Mastodon. The tl;dr is that presumed competence is a good thing, but there's a fine line between that and beatification. Plus there's the whole alcohol thing in my daughter's particular case which would probably not end well, which is more about her than anything else.
posted by plinth at 8:45 AM on March 22 [2 favorites]

Thank you for the answer and the thoughtful write-up you linked to. I feel that the video you linked to in that thread also deserve to be seen here.

I actually have a little bit of experience with the whole "presumed competence" thing as my best friend growing up has cerebral palsy that manifested in lack of motor functions, difficulties with speech etc. No cognitive difficulties, he's a sharp cookie, but hanging with him sometimes people would address me instead of him directly and things like that if we were somewhere people didn't know him. So I've tried to do better myself, but I did not have a ready-made answer for this particular situation.
posted by Harald74 at 12:18 AM on March 23