Apple Has Proposed A Bunch Of New Emojis Representing People With Disabilities
But wheelchair users have some critiques.
This week Apple proposed a bunch of new emojis to better represent people with disabilities.
It’s about time — we’ve had emojis for everything from tacos to satellites for years, as well as “man in suit levitating”, “alien monster” and mermaids, but nothing depicting wheelchairs, hearing aids, or anything else actually representing people with disabilities.
Apple’s suggestion aims to change that, proposing new emojis including an ear with hearing aid, people using motorised and manual wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs, and a guide dog. There’s also a service dog emoji, intended to represent invisible disabilities like mental illnesses and seizures, a person using a probing cane, and an emoji of a person signing “deaf” in American Sign Language.
? ? New: Apple has submitted a proposal to Unicode for accessibility emojis including people in wheelchairs, service dogs, and prosthetic limbs. If approved, they'll be on phones next year https://t.co/ic87QRkDpj pic.twitter.com/d7NISQR0me
— Emojipedia ? (@Emojipedia) March 23, 2018
A service dog emoji is proposed to represent "hidden disabilities" such as Autism, seizures, anxiety, or PTSD. Per the proposal: "service dogs not only perform tasks to help their partners live independent lives, but may represent a lifeline in moments of crisis" pic.twitter.com/S3DpmVFe4j
— Emojipedia ? (@Emojipedia) March 24, 2018
The proposed emojis need to be approved by the Unicode Consortium, the emoji gatekeepers, before becoming available for use but they’ve been met with pretty wide support on social media so far.
They’ve also been met with some criticism — manual wheelchair users, in particular, have pointed out that the proposed manual wheelchair looks more like the kind of wheelchair used in a hospital or an airport than the kind actually used by people with a long term or permanent disability.
The differences are subtle if you’re not familiar with wheelchairs (hospital chairs have a higher back and armrests which make them harder to self-propel), but they make a difference when it’s the only emoji that actually depicts you. There’s a great article on the differences between wheelchairs — and why they matter — here, if you’re interested.
This is my chair, a rigid/fixed frame manual chair with a low backrest and skirt guards. I have handles bc I can’t self propel uphill or for long distances, but they fold down so I don’t get kidnapped by random bipeds (yes it happens). Temp chair on the right. See the difference? pic.twitter.com/6nRLc9oTWq
— robin m eames ♿?️? (@robinmarceline) 24 March 2018
When I first started needing to use a chair I didn’t know the difference bc there is so little accurate rep of wheelchair users in the media. I am lucky the person who fitted me for my chair was also a wheelchair user bc otherwise I would have opted for a folding chair
— robin m eames ♿?️? (@robinmarceline) 24 March 2018
Anyway if you’re going to make much needed updates to visual dictionaries re: marginalised people with a history of shitey representation… do your research, don’t half-ass it. Rant over.
— robin m eames ♿?️? (@robinmarceline) 24 March 2018
Hopefully these critiques will be taken on board in the process of creating the emojis — the images so far are just proposals, and these often change. And while there’s no word from the Unicode Consortium yet, they’d better accept these new emojis. It’s about time.