On November 1, the Canadian Down Syndrome Society (CDSS) launched a new campaign called “Endangered Syndrome” to raise awareness about the myriad difficulties faced by individuals with Down syndrome.
According to the “Endangered Syndrome” official website: “By the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s own criteria, the Down syndrome community qualifies as endangered in many parts of the world. So we’re going to be the first humans ever to apply to be on the Endangered List.”
In their application to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), CDSS writes about the threat to individuals with Down syndrome:
The existing Down syndrome community is shrinking and with the diminishing population, comes a correlated decrease in access to services such as education, housing, employment, as well as their overall quality of living.
The application then sets out a number of statistics relating to the DS community’s level of employment, access to education, housing, and general quality of life as compared to the average population. It also claims that the DS community qualifies for the IUCN’s Red List, pointing to the decrease in birthrate for infants with Down syndrome in Iceland, Denmark, and even the United States:
Due to the declining number of mature individuals in a number of countries based on the very low numbers of absolute births, this would classify people with Down syndrome as Critically Endangered.
Along with the application, the campaign launched as series of videos, such as the following:
While many have applauded the CDSS’s campaign, others have criticized it as “dehumanizing.”
Thank you @CdnDownSyndrome for all you do to raise awareness of the issues that people with Down syndrome and those who love them face – keep up the amazing work and keep pushing the conversation forward!
I don’t like this. It’s dehumanizing those with DS. You know better than to do that. Did you honestly not see this when talking about this???
The above are just two examples of the large volume of both support and condemnation the CDSS campaign is receiving.
Some also expressed concerns regarding the individuals featured in the commercial. CDSS responded by noting that all “the cast and their families were actively involved in the creation of this video.”
The Daily Wire spoke with Ben Tarr, a board member of the CDSS, to clarify the intent of the campaign.
DW: Are you one of the primary people behind the campaign?
TARR: No, I’m not. I’ve been on the board of directors for the Canadian Down Syndrome Society for four years. What really drove me to do that was my second child, Leo, was born with Down syndrome. He’s a wonderful little guy. Because of the challenges that can happen in education, and in medicine, and so on, I was looking for support, and I found this great organization. When I saw there was an opportunity to join them, I did.
We work as a group; we have a full-time marketing person. We also have the help of a wonderful agency, FCB here in Canada, who work with us on a pro bono basis. They were really the masterminds behind the campaign. We worked with them to ensure they had the right information, and made sure it was a message that we wanted to convey.
DW: So, the idea for the Endangered campaign came from the ad agency?
TARR: Exactly. So, we briefed them with the objectives, and for us, this campaign is very much about raising awareness about the challenges that people with Down syndrome face, which is a lack of support in key areas of education, employment, and housing.
DW: On social media, the campaign has been quite controversial. While some people have praised it, others have called it “dehumanizing.” What is your response to that?
TARR: It’s been a really interesting debate. For us, this is about awareness and starting a conversation. This is very much a group in society that’s overlooked much of the time. We have over 1.2 million views alone of the video; we’ve been on every major broadcast outlet in Canada; we’re trending on Twitter. So, awareness is key for us, and there’s conversation happening out there, and that’s what we want to see.
The goal of the animal costumes was really about providing context only. People are really familiar with the issues surrounding endangered animals, and we want people to understand that the Down syndrome community faces similarly serious challenges. We wanted our costume design to be as empowering as possible. We didn’t want to dehumanize. We wanted to take inspiration from armor to symbolize the fight for better support for education, housing, and employment.
Throughout the process of developing this campaign, we paid very careful attention to this. It was all about showcasing the vibrant personalities of our cast members first and foremost, rather than masking them in any way. It was really about giving context to highlight the reality that people with Down syndrome actually meet the criteria for endangerment.
When animals are on the endangered list, communities and governments rally to help that community thrive – and that’s all we want. We want this community, my son’s community, to be able to thrive in life just as we do for all of our children.
DW: Is it actually the intention of the CDSS to get on the “endangered list”?
It may seem like a dramatic way of getting our point across, but the reality is we do need a dramatic shift in awareness and attitudes from the public to understand the severity of the funding shortfalls – and for us, if we get on that list, we’re gonna get some more attention. So, we have put an application in, and we will also be sharing our petition with the IUCN on March 21, 2019, which is “World Down Syndrome Day.” It’s been a helpful platform, and we feel that if we were to get on that list, we’re going to get even more support to help our community thrive.
DW: What’s the ultimate goal of this campaign aside from raising awareness?
TARR: The ultimate goal through raising awareness is to have more support for the Down syndrome community for education, housing, and employment, and to reduce the stigma of people living with Down syndrome in society.
DW: Is there anything we haven’t touched on, or that other media outlets haven’t touched on, that you would like our readership to know?
TARR: I would just say that even if you don’t know someone today with Down syndrome, but you’re an employer, or you work in government, or you have friends that work in government, you have the chance to help this community thrive. You can make a difference by supporting the petition at EndangeredSyndrome.com, or by being more direct, and actually looking at your own employment practices. And if you’re a teacher out there, visit our website to find information about how to do the best for those with Down syndrome in the system.
The Daily Wire would like to thank Ben Tarr for speaking with us about this campaign. For more information about the “Endangered Syndrome” initiative, visit EndangeredSyndrome.com and follow the Canadian Down Syndrome Society on Twitter @CdnDownSyndrome.