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international symbol of access
The disability rights movement in the 1960s demanded barrier- free architecture. Organizations and designers created various wheelchair symbols, some including human figures. The icons signaled broader visibility for people with disabilities.
1968 Designed by Susanne Koefoed, seminar organized by the Scandinavian Design Students (SDO).
1969 The head
was added by Karl Montan, Rehabilitation International, to humanize the symbol.
disabled people and their advocates often argued that disabled people are just like everyone else—if they could only operate on a level playing field, disabled people could easily assimilate. To begin with, they sought changes in the built environment. They didn’t want to live separate from others but asked for accommodations like ramps, railings, wider doorways, etc. There was a big push to install elevators in subway stations and equip buses with wheelchair lifts in order to make public services accessible to everybody.
In parts of Europe, however, you find a different argument—namely that disabled people are, in fact, different from other people; it’s been suggested that treating disabled people the same as everyone else is inhumane. That line of thought suggested that disabled people need separate transpor- tation, special housing, and other types of help. The British had a slightly different approach. For many years the British National Health Service not only provided mobility-impaired people with free wheelchairs, but also little three-wheeled cars that could accommodate only one person and their chair. These were called “invalid tricycles,” and they came with special privi- leges, like being able to park on the sidelines of athletic fields and watch games from the car. I was surprised to learn that the wheelchair symbol in use today combines these ideas.
How did this image come about? It started as a stylized schematic of a wheelchair; following the North American approach, it was intended to direct disabled people to legally mandated accommodations. But others insisted that the symbol should look less abstract and more human. This comes closer to the Northern European approach. And so, a circle (repre- senting a head) was placed on the wheelchair’s back. Thus, a symbol of a wheelchair became the familiar “person in a wheelchair.”