smoya.me
On-Going

The Valivaryus Project

How might we address the stigma against people who live with intellectual and developmental disabilities?

It's a big ask.

The initiative I created as a part of my degree project addresses Down Syndrome in particular due to my sister's personal experiences and my own observations over the course of our lives.

My research and interviews led my initial concept to shift and morph from its original 3 separate pieces into this one initiative.

A phone displays an instagram story that details a 'Living & Live Talk' to find out about notable people with Down Syndrome navigating their careers. 2 samples of instagram social media posts are on the right, asking for people with Down syndrome to be respected instead of celebrated; and to be accepted instead of simply having people be aware of their presence.
Two sides of the same card are featured. The Front has a quote from bell hooks . The back reads 'Differences are more normal than you think. To hear stories from others please visit ds.valivaryus.info' and a personal note written thanking someone for listening in the blank space on the bottom half of this side of the card.
A tote uses a motif of organic blobs to adorn the bottom half, with the top corners sporting the initiative logo and link to the initiative's website
A call to action that encourages people to review common misconceptions of people who live with Down Syndrome. There is a link to an external video. An image fades in from a larger scale to a smaller scale and flashes through pairs of people with Down Syndrome screencapped from the video being linked.