“Assume I can, and maybe I will.” It’s a new ad campaign designed to raise awareness about the assumptions people have about people with Down syndrome and the abilities of people with Down syndrome that might challenge those assumptions.
In so many ways, this ad campaign sums up what we’ve realized is true about our daughter Penny. Assume she can, and maybe she will.
But I’m still concerned about this message. Because it still implies that the value of people with Down syndrome comes from their capacity to behave and perform and achieve like typical people.
For people with Down syndrome, and for all the rest of us too, our value and our capacity to give something meaningful in the world does not come from our ability. It comes from our humanity, our limited, gifted, broken, beautiful, belovedness.
I celebrate the amazing accomplishments of people with Down syndrome. I also celebrate the ordinary, unimpressive lives of people with Down syndrome, the ordinary, unimpressive lives of all of us.
So yes, assume she can, and maybe she will. Even more importantly, assume she matters. Assume she is a gift. Assume she is beloved. (And maybe then we will create a world of belonging.)
MORE WITH AMY JULIA:
- Book: A Good and Perfect Gift: Faith, Expectations, and a Little Girl Named Penny
- Free Resource: Missing Out on Beautiful: Growing Up With a Child With Down Syndrome
- World Down Syndrome Day 2024
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