Aktion Mensch makes inclusive encounters possible
Encounters can be inspiring, surprising and even irritating. Of course they may also mark the beginning of special relationships. However, in our everyday lifes' personal interactions between handicapped individuals and others tend to occur quite rarely. Consequently, by launching a new campaign focusing on the topic “encounters,” the Aktion Mensch is striving to advance its efforts to create an inclusive society.
The campaign was rolled out with the video “Das erste Mal” (The First Time): In an unusual casting scenario, about 20 applicants met a second person without any prior briefing except that they were to interact with each other. The pairs scheduled to meet included one person with and one without a handicap. The video shows the surprising and frequently humorous moments as they arose during this experiment. Just a few days after it had been posted online on various platforms, it had already attracted hundreds of thousands of views and generated overwhelmingly positive responses.
The video promotes the Aktion Mensch’s new campaign platform, which will be continuously expanded over the coming year. An interactive quick test covers typical situations that put individuals with and without handicaps in contact with each other and also highlights the uncertainties they face in terms of their behavior. The bridge between encounters in the actual and the digital world has been built by using the hashtag “#begegnet_in” (met_in) with the aim of fostering inclusive encounters through social media and to document such encounters through the posting of selfies. This will also be the focal point of the upcoming PR event on Equal Rights for Handicapped Individuals on May 5th, which is slated to become the “Day of Interaction.”
In conjunction with the campaign, d-SIRE will be responsible for the online concept, design and frontend implementation.