RADNOR, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — Mia Noelle Rodriguez is a freshman at Archbishop John Carroll High School in Radnor, Pennsylvania. She has been singing since she was 5 years old and recently showcased her talents in a viral video campaign from the Coordination of Associations of People with Down Syndrome, also known as Coordown.
The campaign “No Decisions Without Us” features people with various disabilities demanding to be in the room where decisions are made. It was born out of a commitment to the importance of including people with Down syndrome, and disabilities in general, in decision-making processes.
The video opens with Mia singing, “I want to be where the decisions are made.” She then puts her head against the outside of a door, where two people are inside a room, discussing what she should wear to a wedding. She then storms into the room and demands to be involved in the process, saying she does not like any of the options they assumed would be good for her.
The video then cuts to a man in a wheelchair who busts into a meeting about an “elegant and functional” train station. He points out that, for that to work, a ramp would be needed.
The under-two-minute video also touches on height restrictions, deaf people, and a slew of scenarios where people simply voice their want to be included in conversations that shape their lives. Because what is right for some is not always right for all.
“Many people with intellectual disabilities can learn from making their own decisions. Many people with intellectual disabilities can make a stand that they are capable enough of making their own perspectives or reasons as to making decisions,” said Mia, who has Down syndrome.
The campaign has more than 8 million views on Instagram in less than a week, and 3 million on TikTok, and counting. Rodriguez’s mother mother Natalie Saenz Rodriguez says this message is timely and powerful.
“When we devalue a person for looking different or for being different from ourselves, we miss out. We miss out on the world. We miss out on different perspectives and our own capacity to accept and view the world as a much bigger place than just our own little points of view,” Natalie said. “I think it's important to understand that everybody has value and everybody has something important to say at the table where everybody's making decisions.”
Mia says she wants the world to know that she and other people like her matter.
“This is a fact that having Down syndrome does not stop me from doing the things that I love, like singing, acting, being involved in clubs, after school activities.”
In a statement, Coordown says inclusion will never be possible if the decisions that shape the world are made only by a few, for a few. It is not just a matter of providing specific opportunities to include, but about changing the way we all live together: People with disabilities want to be where decisions are made and where the world is designed.
According to the World Health Organization, at least one billion people — 15% of the global population — live with a disability.
"No Decision Without Us” is available on YouTube and all social platforms of CoorDown and its partners. An international professional cast was chosen for the film which, along with Mia, features Caterina Scorsone, the beloved "Grey’s Anatomy" actor and global star, mom of a daughter with Down syndrome, and spokesperson for the Global Down Syndrome Foundation.