13 New Emojis To Better Represent Users with Disabilities

March 2018 – Apple issued a proposal to the Unicode Consortium, the group responsible for approving emojis, calling for 13 new emojis that more fully represent the diversity among people with disabilities. Created in partnership with the American Council for the Blind, the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, and the National Association of the Deaf, the new emojis include people using canes and wheelchairs, a guide dog, and people saying “I love you” in American Sign Language (ASL). In their proposal, Apple goes on to say, “The current selection of emoji provides a wide array of representations of people, activities, and objects meaningful to the general public, but very few speak to the life experiences of those with disabilities. This new set of emoji that we are proposing aims to provide a wider array of options to represent basic categories for people with disabilities.” 

 

Two years ago Scope, a disability advocacy group in London introduced 18 emojis of people with a variety of disabilities to the Unicode Consortium, and Apple’s latest effort aligns with their history of making their software accessible to people of diverse needs and experiences. Acknowledging that this proposal did not reflect all persons with disabilities, the company said, “This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of all possible depictions of disabilities, but to provide an initial starting point for greater representation for diversity within the emoji universe.”

 

Source: Shaun Heasley, Disability Scoop.