In the months preceding World Down Syndrome Day, we collaborated with organizations from all over the world to survey people with Down syndrome and their families on what excuses they have heard for being excluded from society. Some of these excuses were so incredibly absurd that they deserved to be brought to life and properly ridiculed with a campaign. And so “Ridiculous Excuses not to be inclusive” was born.

In a world increasingly focused on inclusion, there are still those who roll out ridiculous excuses not to be inclusive. Exclusion today is in fact almost never direct and explicit; ridiculous excuses are often made to hide a starker truth and discriminatory attitude. As a consequence, people with disabilities suffer systematic disadvantages in all areas of their lives.

We created a film inspired by real excuses heard by people with Down syndrome and their families. In a comic, yet bitter, tone of voice the film tells the most frequently used excuses for denying access and legitimate space to people with disabilities. It illustrates, in five scenes, episodes of everyday ableism, from being excluded from class trips, in the workplace, at school, playing sports, at summer camps and in the wider community. We launched our campaign on TikTok and asked users to share the #ridiculousexcuses they had heard by using the native features of the platform.

We partnered with organizations from all over the world

to survey people with Down syndrome, and their families, on what excuses they had been given for being excluded from education, sports, jobs, and other opportunities. Then, for World Down Syndrome Day, we selected the most absurd ones and brought them to life to ridicule this behavior.

Through conducting surveys with individuals with Down syndrome and their families, we were able to derive inspiration from real-life experiences and incorporate them into our content. As a result, our content was more relatable to our audience. Moreover, the survey helped us generate a better creative output as many of the excuses we depicted were so absurd that they were almost impossible to imagine.

Altogether, through comments and videos, people shared more than 3,000 ridiculous excuses. The official hashtag of the campaign #ridiculousexcuses reached 60 million views in 10 days. A week after the launch, the campaign even made it to the UN headquarters in New York where it was showcased for World Down Syndrome Day.