My thoughts on the International Symbol of Access

My biggest thought and problem I have with the International Symbol of Access (ISA) is that it doesn’t represent all disabilities, I feel that on the surface it just represents wheelchair users when in fact 93% of people with a disability don’t use a wheelchair yet the symbol we use to represent disability is of a wheelchair user. 

As a wheelchair user myself when I’m out and about it does represent me as a wheelchair user, such as where to go and park my chair in the wheelchair space on a train or bus or to park in a accessible parking bay or use an accessible bathroom or Changing Places (the symbol on that has a wheelchair user on it). However it doesn’t represent my other disabilities and as a symbol of access it represents me there in my wheelchair and my needs relating to that, but what about my other hidden needs? They’re not represented within this symbol. How can we have, if at all possible an International Symbol that represents disability as a whole?

The original symbol was first created in 1968 to identify accessible facilities and features such as parking spaces, accessible toilets and spaces on buses and trains. I personally prefer the new symbol that was redesigned in 2010 as it shows an active wheelchair user rather than the static person in a wheelchair in the original symbol. It’s hard to explain but in the original symbol the figure is just sat there not doing anything, but it the new symbol have an active figure seems to symbolise that wheelchair users are active, like were active members of society rather than passive static members of society. I just feel that the new symbol needs to catch on and be used more and be replaced over the original symbol and for the new symbol to be more widely know and recognised as the ISA.

There are many other accessibility symbols out there however these symbols are very niche to their purpose and I feel that they may also not be widely recognised and understood past the need of the user for that symbol or especially by those who don’t have any form of disability or chronic illness. What is good is that these symbols are used universally so are used and recognised around the world.

 People and companies are always trying to come up with ways to symbolise disability and chronic illness more universally. For example the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Lanyard. Wearing a Sunflower Lanyard will symbolise to others that you have some form of hidden disability; you can also buy cards to attach to your lanyard that names your hidden disability for additional visibility and you can also outline what your access requirements are on your card too to make gaining accessibility and visibility of your hidden disability easier. The Sunflower Lanyard scheme is gaining wider popularity and recognition and stores and other venues like airports, train stations, shops and concert venues are trained to recognise the Sunflower Lanyard and how best to meet the needs of those with hidden disabilities. Companies are also adding signs to their accessible toilets to say that not every disability is visible in recognition that accessible toilets are used by a wide variety of people with a wide variety of health conditions; not just wheelchair user (as is often the assumption as to who uses them).

One of the big problems many non wheelchair users find with the ISA is facing attitudes of ableism and discrimination. Because the symbol is of a wheelchair user some non-disabled people hold the belief that the facility or access feature is for wheelchair users only, for example accessible toilets (hence the move to put up alternative signage on accessible toilets) and also accessible parking. So often I hear of non wheelchair users facing scrutiny and hurtful comments for parking in accessible parking bays because they’re not in a wheelchair, or even because they’re an ambulatory wheelchair user an so can get out of their wheelchair even though all of these individuals are using a valid disabled parking badge which they’ve been awarded. This may be because they can’t walk far and so use one of a variety of mobility aids (which  may differ from day to day for some people), those who a blind or visually impaired, individuals who lack a sense of danger, or even those who have severe anxiety can make a person eligible for a disabled parking badge. All these examples are wide ranging yet the only symbol you see around the parking bays are of a wheelchair user. How could we represent the wide range of need for these parking bays, or on the flip side do we need to educate the public so they don’t scrutinise someone with a disability or chronic illness who isn’t in a wheelchair for parking [with their blue disabled parking badge] who isn’t in a wheelchair?

One store in the UK did try to change this to make their accessible parking spaces more inclusive, however I feel it was done very poorly. By calling their parking bays ‘Less Abled Parking’ yes it did include those that were less able encompassing more people than just wheelchair users to be able to park there that were less able to walk far. However by calling is ‘Less Abled Parking’ it almost feels like disabled and chronically ill people are being called ‘less than’ or ‘less able’, yes individuals might be less able to walk far, but they are not less able in general. It’s almost demoralising using the term ‘Less Abled Parking’ in my opinion.

I think with accessible parking companies need to use signage that represents different disabilities like what has been done to accessible toilets to make the public aware that accessible parking is for more than just wheelchair users. I think this would help with education and reduce discrimination.

 The Visibility93 project set out to redesigned what they saw as the outdated and poorly representative symbol for disability. With there being fewer disabled people in wheelchairs than the rest of the population they set out to create symbols to represent different disabilities and chronic illnesses and came up with an alphabet of 27 symbols each representing conditions from Crohn’s and Colitis, epilepsy, diabetes to depression and more. I think this is a new and creative way to represent different disabilities and chronic illnesses.

I think in conclusion finding a universal symbol to represent disability would be difficult because there are so many diverse disabilities and chronic illnesses out there. Despite wheelchair users being in the minority it is often the most visual thing that comes to a person’s mind when they think of disability. So often in television when a character or background character is used who has a disability the go-to is someone in a wheelchair, the same goes for advertising because it’s the most obvious this for a non-disabled person to understand when it comes to the complexities of disability. I think if you asked most people what they think of when you ask them to think about a disability they’ll picture a person in a wheelchair.

As a society we are also so used to the current ISA to represent disability if it were to change to reflect disability more fairly i.e. hidden disabilities it would only be confusing for non-disabled people to understand what it represents in relation to disability.