The ad starts with model and actor Madison Tevlin addressing a bartender.
“Hey bartender, you assume that I can’t drink a margarita so you don’t serve me a margarita so I don’t drink a margarita,” she said in the video. “Your assumption becomes reality.”
Tevlin, 22, who has Down syndrome is the face of a new campaign challenging people to confront the way they think about people with Down syndrome.
The ad — produced by CoorDown and Small New York in association with the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS) and other organizations — was created in honor of World Down Syndrome Day on March 21.
As it goes on, Tevlin addresses other stereotypes that persist, including the idea that people with Down syndrome cannot live independently.
“Parents, you assume that I cannot live on my own, so you don’t encourage me to live on my own,” she says.
Marta Sodano, an Italian woman with Down syndrome, partially inspired the campaign after she spoke at the World Down Syndrome Day Conference at the United Nations, according to a NDSS press release. CoorDown, an Italian organization, leads the “Assume That I Can” campaign.
“I discovered that in psychology there is a concept called ‘self-fulfilling prophecy,’ whereby a teacher who thinks that a student cannot understand would just act accordingly and therefore would not teach the student. And there you go: the prophecy self-fulfills,” she said. “In my opinion, there are not difficult or easy concepts, there is always a simple way to explain things. If I think of all the things that were not explained and taught to me, well I get really angry.”
Since its viral release on March 15, the ad has already shifted some perspectives, Kandi Pickard, the president, and CEO of NDSS, tells TODAY.com.
“The whole point of this video is to end those stereotypes of people living with Down syndrome,” she tells TODAY.com. “Many times, people with disabilities are presumed to be unable to care for themselves…
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