Advisory Board

Professor Dr. Dr. Heinz Schott and Julia Bertmann are two important people for TOUCHDOWN 21.
They are the advisory board for the project.
And they are the advisory board for the TOUCHDOWN exhibition.

Their work is important for the project.
In this text they write about why they are on the board, and what their roles are.

Julia Bertmann writes:

Advisory board of the TOUCHDOWN exhibition
I'm on the board of the exhibition so I can see if we, people with Down syndrome, are portrayed how we really are.
I check if the scientists plan the exhibition correctly, otherwise it gets too scientific. Us people with Down syndrome want to be able to understand everything when we come to see the exhibition.

Advisory board of the TOUCHDOWN 21 research project
The research group has many different areas and that's where I join in.
As a part of the research group I can look at how we, people with Down syndrome, live, think, feel and work.
I am one of those that are being researched.
I am a kind of inspector and I have to see if the scientists say everything in plain language and if people with Down syndrome can understand it.

Professor Dr. Dr. Heinz Schott writes:

Why are you part of the advisory board for the TOUCHDOWN exhibition?
Because I have known the Ohrenkuss project already for a long time, and I find it fascinating.
So I gladly said yes when I was asked to be on the advisory board.

What is your role on the advisory board for the exhibition?
In the meetings I share my impressions and thoughts, that I have as a historian of medicine.

What does the work mean? Why is it important?
Working on this exhibition is an unusual experience. Many different people are working together: some with and some without Down syndrome, some with very different occupations.
This work is important, because it shows that it is possible to achieve much, and extraordinary things, by going together towards a common goal.

Why are you on the advisory board of the TOUCHDOWN 21 research project?
Because this project will create a new basis for a worldwide comprehensible scientific analysis of Down syndrome.

What is your role on this board?
To accompany the research process and, where necessary, to make concrete suggestions for research strategies.
The research approach is unconventional and innovative. [Unconventional is another word for unusual. Innovative means it is new. Until now, something like this did not exist].
That is why the work will be a pleasure.
The project highlights, in a special way, its subject's meaning: Also, research is always connected to self-exploration, and that precisely is something not often seen in today's scientific community.