What do a sloth, oyster and a banjo have in common with a wheelchair, mechanical leg and service dog?
Each is one of 59 new emojis and their variations approved by the Unicode Consortium this year. Among these, a bevy of disability-inclusive emojis are making waves.
The new additions representing people with physical disabilities, including a hearing aid, probing cane and person using a wheelchair, have received positive feedback from disability activists across the country.
“Apple’s 13 proposed emojis may be what society needs to recognize that disability representation is sorely needed and long overdue,” wrote Ace Ratcliff, who has hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and several other conditions, in an opinion column for Huffpost. “Casually swiping across illustrations of disability while en route to other emojis may even cause nondisabled people to spend a little more of their day thinking about our existence.”
The emojis will join other inclusive icons approved by Unicode in recent years, like same-sex couples and a variety of skin tone options. The Unicode Consortium is a nonprofit corporation that standardizes digital text like emojis; its members, including Apple, Twitter and Google, can propose additions.
Apple requested the disability-inclusive emojis last year, noting in its proposal that emojis “provide a wide range of options, but may not represent the experiences of those with disabilities. Diversifying the options available helps fill a significant gap and provides a more inclusive experience for all.”
How were there half a dozen fantasy emojis like a mermaid and magician before there were representations for the world’s largest minority? According to the World Bank, 15 percent of the world’s population, or one billion people, has some type of disability.
Before this year, only one of the 2,666 emojis in the Unicode dictionary represented disability: a solitary symbol for a wheelchair. The addition of over a dozen others is a huge win for the disability community because because it increases representation and acknowledges the diversity that exists within disability — not every disabled person uses a wheelchair. Many, like myself, don’t.
But the new additions are also important for everyone else, those without disabilities, because they normalize these aids and physical differences. It’s when these things aren’t viewed as part of the diversity of shapes, sizes and abilities of humans that people with disabilities encounter everyday prejudice and discrimination.
As a high schooler living with the neuromuscular disease myasthenia gravis, I experienced my share of strange looks and cold shoulders from people who were uncomfortable with my cane, sparkly blue and badass though it was. The consequences of this prejudice go far beyond everyday slights like this, though — people with disabilities experience increased levels of poverty, unemployment, police violence and lack of representation in media. Don’t get me started on inaccessibility.
“The internet is a reflection of society, and within our society, disability is not a priority,” Ratcliff wrote. “Disabled people see that in nearly every aspect of our existence.”
These emojis, however, represent a step in the right direction. In the digital world of our smartphones and other devices, we now exist.
