Hello again. Summer will be here soon, so I can write more often. Hopefully. I’ve kinda fallen down the black holes that are the SCP Foundation and the Wanderer’s Library, so perhaps when their articles get a little less addicting…
(If you love horror writing, you should totally check out the Foundation. But I digress).
So, I recently heard about the new disability access symbol. Actually, I heard about it a long time ago, and then found it again while looking for inspiration for this blog.
The symbols people use can say a lot about their history and cultural values. For example, the crosses at churches are a symbol of Christ’s death for our salvation. The presence of churches and the near universal knowledge as to what that symbol stands for in countries strongly identifying as Christian demonstrates how important this event in Jesus’ life is to their religion and thus, to them as followers of the faith. However, in places controlled by radical terrorists that would like to create a homogeneous nation-state without Christians, the cross may not be a symbol of faith and salvation, it may be seen as something hostile, as a symbol of the enemy.
It’s not just religious symbols that can do this.
As you may know, the current standard symbol for disability access looks like this. (The image is the current disability access symbol, a white figure in a wheelchair on a blue background. Image from Wikimedia Commons).
This image universally represents disability. However, it also reveals how we think about disability. The person isn’t really a person, more of a stick figure, but it at least has a head. That’s better than the original design, which didn’t have one. The head was added to humanize the symbol, which shows progress in thinking about people with disabilities as people. However, the symbol is sedentary. This implies that people with disabilities need to be helped, as they cannot be active on their own.
This symbol has been the worldwide standard since 1969.
The new symbol is here. It shows white symbol person in a wheelchair, but they are pushing it and moving it forward this time.
This new symbol is a good update, in my opinion. It portrays the person more humanlike, as in, the head is not on top of the wheelchair. The person is a separate entity from the wheelchair. It also uses the image of the person moving forward, which implies that people with disabilities can be independently active.
Essentially, the new symbol says that people with disabilities are whole people, not just their disabilities, and they can take action. Some people with disabilities oppose the change in the symbol because the action shown is physical action. However, I think that this sign uses that because it’s easy to see and understand in an instant (an example of valuing convenience). You don’t have to be physically active to be active within your community, of course, but I think the issue here is making people understand that people with disabilities can take action in many different forms, not just in the physical sense of the sign.
This was adopted in New York in 2014 and will be adopted in Connecticut in 2017. This is not the universal symbol yet, so implementation is currently an issue.
The change in symbols represents a growing change in our culture, from portraying people with disabilities as having little power to act and control their own fate, to being able to be seen as those who can do those things. It even says how we want to better include disability in diversity by considering this change. We see people with disabilities taking action, and so we want to represent them as people who take action. I think that is a fair change.
I also believe that the voices who oppose this symbol should be listened to as part of this debate on whether or not to change this design, because as I have said many times before, the main obstacle, geographically, for people with disabilities is a lack of understanding. Listening to their reasons for approving or disapproving changes like this can give us valuable information as to how they interact with their environment and culture on a personal level, which can help us better understand how to make our communities more inclusive and diverse.
Just think of other symbols. After all, a thumbs up in the US means great job, but in Russia and Greece, it is the same as flipping the bird at someone. Their meanings change across space and time. Hopefully, the dialogue about the new proposed symbol will reveal how we are changing our perceptions of disability as a culture, and where those changes are taking place.
-M