Karla Lazcano Tapia Differential Educator and academic at U. Central March 21 arrives, and since my son has been in kindergarten, we are asked to attend with mismatched socks to commemorate World Down Syndrome Day. At the end of the day — after seeing photos, campaigns, and viral messages circulating on social media — I ask my five-year-old son if he understands why he went to kindergarten with changed socks.
The truth is, he still doesn’t quite get it. The scene seems simple, but it leaves an uncomfortable question: how much of what we do in the name of inclusion is truly understood and lived beyond symbolic gestures? Every March 21, the world commemorates World Down Syndrome Day.
The date aims to raise awareness of people with this condition and promote a more inclusive society. But it should also invite us to review how much we have really advanced in ensuring their rights and full participation in social life. In Chile, significant progress has been made.
We now have legal frameworks that seek to protect the rights of people with disabilities, such as Law 20. 609 against discrimination, Law 20. 422 on equal opportunities and social inclusion, and Law 21.
015 which promotes labor inclusion through hiring quotas. This is complemented by more recent initiatives, such as the …
As part of the team of the University Program for Socio-Labor Training for People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities at the Universidad Central (PRUFODIS), we see daily how many young people face barriers that have little to do with their abilities. The main difficulty remains the social ignorance regarding their skills and potential. Our students have demonstrated something evident, although it still seems necessary to repeat it: they can study, work, make decisions about their life projects, and even start a family.
In other words, they can fully exercise their citizenship. Inclusion, then, cannot be reduced to a viral campaign or a symbolic gesture like wearing mismatched socks one day a year. The challenge is much deeper: to build a society where respect, empathy, and recognition of diversity are part of everyday life.
When inclusion is understood as a right — and not as a favor — it stops being a discourse and begins to become practice. Perhaps that day we will no longer have to explain to our children why we wear mismatched socks. They will simply grow up in a world where difference does not need to be explained, because it is already a natural part of common life.