A friend of mine who was a 42 year old mother of four little ones - including her son with #DownSyndrome - just died of #PancreaticCancer.

Fuck this guy and the absolute garbage sycophants who allowed him in.

#BillCassidy we see you.

As someone stepping into a caregiving role, you may find yourself unsure of where to start. This checklist offers a starting point to help your loved one with #DownSyndrome stay on top of their health. Read more: cdss.ca/resources/pu...

3.21 Magazine is co-published with @dsrfcanada.

Female photographer, with her camera, next to the net on a tennis court.

"And we continue" #NwnPhoto photographers with a #disability #Inclusion #diversity #intellectualdisabilities #downsyndrome #FASD #photography

Meet Rebecca Storshenko, a young woman who is overcoming Down Syndrome Regression Disorder and flourishing with support from the Down Syndrome Resource Foundation.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=wf2L...
#DownSyndrome

Adidas has launched an adaptive shoe shaped by feedback from individuals with Down syndrome and others, focusing on real needs in comfort and usability. #DownSyndrome #AdaptiveDesign #Accessibility

Photographer with camera at a riding arena. In the background a horse is being walked.

"We're back" #NwnPhoto photographers with a #disability #inclusion #diversity #intellectualdisabilities #downsyndrome #FASD #photography

Virtual reality is being used to help young people with autism and Down syndrome practice life skills and build confidence in real-world situations. Learn more - youtu.be/tzAhTEniku4.

#Autism #DownSyndrome #LifeSkills #AssistiveTechnology

Understanding, not correction.

#conversationalcontext #speechrecognition #designphilosophy #Downsyndrome #evaluation

The feet of athletes in a fun run are seen on a crosswalk. The pavement is wet from the rain.

"Running" photo: Rafa Nuka #NwnPhoto photographers with a #disability #inclusion #diversity #intellectualdisabilities #downsyndrome #FASD #photography

Letters To Sheila: #1 April 3, 2026

Writing to our children that die is one way of carrying on conversations with our cherished loved one that has gone before us.
#ParentingJourney #DownSyndrome #memoir
open.substack.com/pub/handsonn...

That relationship should be: the machine is the one that needs to improve.

That's the whole project, actually. That's what "understand not fix" means.

Understanding, not correction.

#language #UXcopy #accessibility #Downsyndrome #designphilosophy

person.

It's a small change in lines of code. It's not a small change in what the system says about the people who use it. Every word in the interface is an implicit claim about the relationship between the speaker and the machine.

#language #UXcopy #accessibility #Downsyndrome #designphilosophy

Intelligibility scoring was framed as word recognition versus meaning — because those are distinct things, and conflating them is how you end up implying that a speaker who is hard to transcribe is somehow less intelligible as a

#language #UXcopy #accessibility #Downsyndrome #designphilosophy

I changed the messaging explicitly to "understand not fix." The review step now clarifies that the system is trying to understand what was said, not evaluate whether it was said correctly.

#language #UXcopy #accessibility #Downsyndrome #designphilosophy

You speak, the machine transcribes, the machine fixes what it got wrong, and "wrong" always refers to the speaker.

#language #UXcopy #accessibility #Downsyndrome #designphilosophy

Not maliciously — it just crept in through inattention. Default framing in speech technology leans toward correction because that's the tradition.

#language #UXcopy #accessibility #Downsyndrome #designphilosophy

I caught it late in a review pass: the review step in the demo was framed in a way that implied correction. The system was analyzing speech and presenting results in a way that positioned the speaker as the problem being solved.

#language #UXcopy #accessibility #Downsyndrome #designphilosophy

The words you choose tell the person using the system what they should expect, and more subtly, what they should feel about themselves.

#language #UXcopy #accessibility #Downsyndrome #designphilosophy

The UI said "we're fixing your speech" — so I changed every word of it

Language in an interface is never neutral.

#language #UXcopy #accessibility #Downsyndrome #designphilosophy

In “Donny and Mary Grace’s California Adventures” by Catherine A. Pepe, two siblings team up with the Grandma Gang to stand up to bullying in their new school and discover courage.

For ages 6–14.

Grab a copy:

onlinebookclub.org/shelves/book...

#Adventure #Courage #DownSyndrome

Entrepreneurs with Down syndrome launch innovative pizza business in Argentina After being rejected from every job they applied for, four friends with Down syndrome in Argentina decided to stop waiting for a "yes" and started their own business: Los Perejiles (The Parsleys). 🍕 What started as a small pizza catering project in 2016 exploded into a massive success. They brought their own ovens to weddings and parties, proving they could handle the high-pressure environment of a professional kitchen. They’ve now catered hundreds of events and expanded to employ over 20 other people with disabilities. They even reclaimed their name from a local slur to turn it into a symbol of empowerment. It’s a powerful reminder that "disability" doesn't mean "inability"—it just means needing a different way to show what you're capable of.

Entrepreneurs with Down syndrome in Argentina are making headlines with their innovative new pizza business! 🇦🇷🍕 This inspiring venture highlights the power of inclusion and delicious success. #DownSyndrome #Inclusion #Argentina #FoodBiz

A man wearing a gray bunny ears and sweatshirt with Cookie Monster is standing next to a young woman with Down syndrome who is wearing white bunny ears and hugging the man.

Happy Easter from me and Alice #parenting #downSyndrome #disability

New Friends
January 15, 2015
Worcester, MA
#photography
#portraits
#mercycentre
#catholiccharities
#downsyndrome
#holycross

Grace Film Review - Down Syndrome and Autonomy A heartfelt review of Grace, a short film by Anna Rodgers exploring autonomy, love, and self-determination for a young woman with Down Syndrome.

Grace Film Review - Down Syndrome and #Autonomy - #Grace, a short film written and directed by #AnnaRodgers, starring #FiadhnaitCanning as a young woman with #DownSyndrome navigating love, independence, and the boundaries others place on her life - www.disabled-world.com/communicatio...

New Friends
January 15, 2015
Worcester, MA

#photography
#portraits
#mercycentre
#catholiccharities
#downsyndrome
#holycross

A solitary light tower in a green field with a blue sky.

"Castilla" photo: Guillermo Trillo #NwnPhoto photographers with a #disability #inclusion #diversity #intellectualdisabilities #downsyndrome #FASD #photography

Understanding, not correction.

#speechrecognition #fine-tuning #Downsyndrome #worderrorrate #accessibility

That result matters not because fine-tuning is surprising — it isn't — but because of what it proves. The speech was always intelligible. The model just hadn't learned how to listen to it yet. All I did was teach it.

#speechrecognition #fine-tuning #Downsyndrome #worderrorrate #accessibility

Same architecture, different training distribution. One run, a few hours later: 12.1% word error rate. A 66% improvement.

#speechrecognition #fine-tuning #Downsyndrome #worderrorrate #accessibility

It's undertrained on this kind of speech because this kind of speech is underrepresented in every dataset that ever went into it. That's not a model failure — it's a data failure upstream of the model.

So I fine-tuned.

#speechrecognition #fine-tuning #Downsyndrome #worderrorrate #accessibility