Confronting Perceptions By Showing Love With Down Syndrome

One thing that has stood out to me repeatedly in conversations with members of the disabled community is just how one dimensionally they are often perceived, portrayed and treated ... as brave sources of inspiration for the rest of us. It is usually driven by the mistaken assumption that anyone who is disabled should be celebrated simply for getting out of bed in the morning. Instead, the one desire I heard repeated most often from the community was a hunger to be treated like anyone else. People in a wheelchair want to be asked what they do for work, rather than be judged by the assumption that they don't work.

In a campaign featured in Adweek magazine, a Canadian Down Syndrome nonprofit partnered with photographer Hilary Gauld to confront stereotypes in a magical way: by showcasing love between people with Down Syndrome. The result is a powerful series of images that remind us just how much people with disabilities are just like the rest of us ... and simply long to be treated that way.