Non-Profit Civil Partnership "Me Alla Matia"

The goal of #SpeakUp is to break down stereotypes surrounding disability. This concerns not only the general public but also people with recent impairments and their loved ones who need education and empowerment in this new condition. At the same time, by putting disabled people in the spotlight, we aim to reduce their underrepresentation in the public sphere.

Our campaign is aimed at the general public that remains largely ignorant of the lives of people with disabilities, seeking to familiarize them with the strengths PwDs have. At the same time, it also addresses disabled people themselves by promoting positive disability role models and increasing their visibility in the public sphere. Furthermore, it is valuable material for the relatives of disabled people and professionals active in the disability field, as it showcases, among many others, technological solutions for independent living. Finally, #SpeakUp is also addressed to educators interested in inclusion who want to enhance their teaching with relevant content.

3 years (October 2020 - today)

By tapping into the dynamics of social media, disabled people and organizations active in the field of disability present fragments of their daily lives and actions in short videos of less than a minute. The topics they show are many: sports, arts, cooking, autonomy, sign language, braille, personal relationships, and fashion are just some of the list. The videos are subtitled and feature voice-over to ensure accessibility for the hearing and visually impaired.

#SpeakUp comes to answer many of the questions that may concern the public regarding disability, but also food for thought about important issues that often escape attention. Can deaf people drive? What board games can blind people play? How does a person with a motor disability drive a car? How do deaf people wake up? How do blind people distinguish coins? How do we behave around a guide dog? And if someone has one hand, how can they navigate daily life?

As its popularity grew, the #SpeakUp campaign was further developed into two sub-projects:

• a cooking video series with select guests in blindfolds called "Blind Cooking". The instigator of our organization, Vaggelis Avgoulas, blind from birth, invites his sighted friends to close their eyes and create together in the kitchen — or sometimes in the bar!
• Q&A videos that answer frequent questions of young and old regarding practical issues of disabled everyday life. This series is inspired by the children's questions we have received over the years during our educational school visits.

An innovative element of this campaign is that disabled people create content and star in it, thus breaking the stereotype that wants them to be a less telegenic image. Through these videos, they offer a glimpse into their daily lives, educating the rest of the public about what they achieve despite the obstacles posed to them by society. Our campaign is a timeless invitation to disabled people to speak up about what concerns them and claim space both in the digital sphere and beyond. At the same time, it invites non-disabled people with disability awareness to share the disability experience with their environment, being part of the chain that will revise the stereotypes reproduced about disability.

#SpeakUp was supported in its initiation by the Vodafone Foundation, which funded the six-month employment of a disabled worker dedicated to the development of the campaign. From December 2020 to June 2021, we received funding from the Kahane Foundation to further support the action. For 2022 and 2023, we were supported by Pfizer Hellas, with whose help a total of 13 new videos were created for the campaign. This year, as part of our extended collaboration with Praktiker Hellas, we created five more videos.

We have also worked with disability and accessibility agencies such as:

• the Greek Sign Language Interpreters Agency "HandsUp" that provided interpretation for some of the videos that were made
• the Greek Sign Language School of Chrysanthi Schinarakis, which contributed to the creation of videos regarding Sign Language
• the Association for People with Mobility Problems and Friends "Perpato", contributed with a short video 
• the Liberty Guide Dogs, with whom we made two videos on the use of the guide dog for the blind

For the implementation of the videos, five employees are involved in taking shots, editing, subtitling, disseminating to the public, etc. At the same time, to date, around 40 volunteers have participated by offering their material, following our invitation to the disabled community to co-shape the content of our campaign.

The campaign reaches a nationwide range.  

By spreading our campaign on social media, we managed to reach especially the young audience, with whom we interact daily through the ongoing videos we publish. From October 2020 to date, the 160 videos we have promoted have exceeded 15 million views on Instagram & our other platforms (Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn).

Through its wide dissemination, our campaign also reached numerous schools throughout Greece, which invited us and continue to invite us for the implementation of educational talks on familiarization with disability. Last year alone, 11,700 students and 1,010 teachers were educated on disability matters as part of our "Des Ti Zoi Me Alla Matia" (=See Life Through Other Eyes) educational program, which we implement with the permission of the Ministry of Education.

With #SpeakUp as a vehicle, we significantly developed our social media reach, doubling our audience on digital platforms and spreading our message of equality and inclusion far beyond what we would have reached through more conventional means. The campaign has also been featured in Greek TV shows and press reports. In the same direction, the promotion of our content by well-known figures in the celebrity field also helped boost our popularity. A typical example is the participation of famous actor and screenwriter Giorgos Kapoutzidis in our video about accompanying blind people on World White Cane Day, which was featured in numerous media. 

In addition to our growing popularity, we now have a rich digital library of educational content available that we use in our school and company speeches on disability nationwide. In this way, the sustainability of the action is ensured, and we feed the extensive activity of our body.