Down syndrome has existed since, at least, the fifth century. However, the real numbers of this population remain unknown until today. Not in a country but in the entire world.

Given the lack of official data regarding this population, it is overlooked by the State, hindering its development and excluding it from any public policy that ensures its rights, as required by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

How is it possible that in 17 centuries no one has wondered about this missing number?

ASDRA (Down Syndrome Association of the Argentine Republic) took on a great challenge:

- Give visibility to the numbers of a population that, so far, seemed invisible.

- Be aware of and raise awareness on the issues affecting this population.

- Get the State to include this population within public policies to put an end to the Numbers Syndrome.

In this context of lack of information regarding this portion of the population, we had the challenge of making data accessible and generating enough impact to change paradigms.

NUMBERS SYNDROME was created to reveal these numbers on people with Down syndrome—which were unknown until now—and help them develop themselves thanks to the data they generated themselves.

This action tool collected and compared submitted information (age, sex, education, work, society, development, location) turning each new piece of data into statistics and each statistic into real-time claims to the State that users could share on their networks.

With this action, social media was filled with grievances, as well as new activists, putting pressure on the State to answer and take action.

First, we introduced this tool to our specific audience, inviting people with Down syndrome to start feeding this database. Since there were no previous parameters that could make the work easier for us, it was key to develop an accessible data collection methodology for online data.

Thus, we created an adapted form through a WhatsApp ChatBot that allowed us to speed up the registration process.

Once this tool was working, the campaign was launched massively, showing for the first time real data and alarming statistics that proved how invisible this population was because of the lack of official numbers

The campaign also invited everyone to join in order to make these claims visible and put pressure on the State.

This way, social media was filled with activists urging the State to take action.

NUMBERS SYNDROME is not only a public welfare campaign. It is also an action tool that allows us to get to know the reality of people with Down syndrome for the first time based on the data they submitted themselves.

This dynamic tool turns each new piece of data into statistics and each statistic into a claim tweet that users can share on their networks to put pressure on the State.

During the launch, millions of people could become activists for our cause by just sending a tweet straight from the same platform where the data was shown. This action tool enabled us to generate continuous claims to public entities, identifying real opportunities for getting real changes.

Through creativity and technology, we could start changing a reality in need of evolution.

The pressure of our campaign achieved great results:

For the first time in Argentine history, the State acknowledged the numbers of people with Down syndrome by making data official and opening up the possibility of establishing real public policies that safeguard the rights of this population in all areas of their lives.

The Argentine Legislature declared our campaign of public interest and raised the importance of our tool as an ally for the development of this population.

Our database surpassed the records held until then by 2800%.

4.3 million people became activists in this action, joining forces for the same cause.

Numbers Syndrome was the most far-reaching campaign about people with Down syndrome in the history of Argentina.