Awareness campaigns about disability too often speak about communities rather than with them. This one was built on a different premise: the people closest to the experience are best placed to communicate it.
For Learning Disability Awareness Month, we provided 16 individuals with a platform to tell their own stories, in their own words, so the neurodivergent community’s diversity could speak for itself. We deliberately sought people from across age groups, ethnic backgrounds, and types of learning differences because learning disabilities don’t look or sound the same, and a campaign shouldn’t either.
We brought them together for a two-day fully accessible production. No scripts, no spokesperson briefs, just honest conversations about lived experience: the challenges, the misunderstandings, the things they wished the world understood. Our job was to create the conditions for those stories to emerge, then shape them into something that would travel.
“The Many Faces of Learning Disabilities” ran across social channels in various formats — reaching people where they were and driving them toward free resources built around topics the community told us mattered most.
Learning disabilities affect people from all walks of life, with diverse backgrounds and ages. However, only 54% of adults aged 18–34 acknowledge that neurodivergent individuals have unique experiences. This campaign was designed to close that gap.
The campaign was covered by 406 media outlets, reaching a potential audience of 44.1 million people — evidence that when you trust community voices, the work resonates further.
CREDITS:
Client: Understood.org
Director: Berman Fenelus
DP: Olga Vázquez
My role: Concept, Strategy, Creative Direction, Art Direction
Creative Director | Inclusive Approach & Accessible & Design 