Disability Rights And The Interational Symbol Of Accessibility
(Huffington Post)
February 22, 2013
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA– [Excerpt provided by Inclusion Daily] Justin J.W. Powell and Liat Ben-Moshe have written a great short history of the icon signifying accessibility for people who use wheelchairs for the magazine Stimulus Respond. The story, they argue, is one of “exclusion to inclusion.”
For most of American history, they begin, there was no icon at all. This is because people in wheelchairs were largely excluded from public life. There were no efforts to ensure accessibility, so no signs of accessibility were needed.
In the late ’60s, however, Rehabilitation International partnered with the United Nations and the International Standards Organisation to sponsor an international competition for an icon. The winner, a Danish design student named Susanne Koefoed, had submitted the icon on the left. In committee, they noted that Koefoed’s design erased the person in the wheelchair. They added a head, creating what people around the world recognize as a symbol of accessibility.
The symbol is still evolving.
Entire article:
Disability Rights and the Interational Symbol of Accessibility
http://tinyurl.com/ide0222136
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