what does this symbol mean?

Accessibility symbols

Symbols and schemes that signal access needs in public places, and what each one means.

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About accessibility symbols

Accessibility symbols are the symbols and schemes that signal access needs in public places. Most mark a place or a service: the International Symbol of Access and the Accessible Icon for step-free access, and the symbols for audio description, closed captioning, assistive listening, sign language interpretation and the TTY. One marks a person: the sunflower lanyard, a green lanyard printed with yellow sunflowers, which is the symbol of the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower. Each page says what the symbol means in the words of the standard, law or organisation behind it, and where those disagree.

The wheelchair symbol and its redrawing

Susanne Koefoed, a Danish graphic design student, drew the winning design for the International Symbol of Access, a stick figure using a wheelchair. Rehabilitation International, which ran the competition, added a circle for a head and adopted the symbol in 1969; the US Access Board dates the competition to 1968. The 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design require it on accessible parking spaces, among other places. The Accessible Icon Project redrew it with the figure leaning forward, and offers its icon free for use in the public domain; New York’s Executive Law has the state require, on new signs, a figure leaning forward with a sense of movement. The US Access Board’s position is that a symbol other than the ISA does not comply with the ADA Standards unless it meets their equivalent facilitation provision.

Symbols for services

The Graphic Artists Guild Foundation produced a set of twelve disability access symbols with the National Endowment for the Arts, including AD, CC, an ear for assistive listening and two signing hands for sign language interpretation, which the Guild says marks interpretation provided for a lecture, tour, film, performance, conference or other program. The ADA Standards require the ear, which they call the International Symbol of Access for Hearing Loss, on signs for assistive listening systems, and the International Symbol of TTY on public TTYs. The Canadian Association of the Deaf rejected the ear in 1990: it says the ear is used to show that assistive listening devices are provided, but misleads Deaf people who are looking for sign language interpretation.

The sunflower lanyard

The Hidden Disabilities Sunflower launched at London Gatwick Airport in May 2016. Epilepsy Action describes the idea as a green lanyard with a yellow sunflower that passengers could choose to wear to indicate an invisible disability. The scheme calls it a simple tool for voluntarily sharing a disability or condition that may not be immediately apparent. It says there is no qualifying list of invisible disabilities, and that wearers do not need to provide proof or explain why they wear it. It does not automatically provide priority access, fast-track services or a place at the front of a queue. Gatwick says its staff will not know what a wearer’s particular disability is.

The scheme’s figures

The scheme’s pages give different counts. Its tenth-anniversary post says the Sunflower is recognised in more than 95 countries. Its airports page gives 350 airports in 70 countries, and 31 airlines; the page explaining the Sunflower says over 300 airports, and its facts page over 200. The symbol page shows each figure beside the page it comes from.

Other cards, and the law in Brazil and Uruguay

Transport for London’s “Please offer me a seat” badge and card are for people who struggle to stand on public transport; TfL says they don’t promise a seat. The TSA Notification Card used at US airport security states that presenting it does not exempt the traveller from screening. Brazil’s Law 14.624, signed on 17 July 2023, formalised the ribbon with sunflower designs as the symbol identifying people with hidden disabilities. Under that law the symbol does not replace a document proving the disability when one is asked for. Uruguay’s law of December 2025 allows the voluntary use of the “collar de girasoles” (sunflower lanyard) to be promoted.

Sources

  1. Our History, Project Semicolon (Internet Archive copy, 18 April 2025; the organisation’s site was offline when checked in September 2026), Project Semicolon
  2. Hidden Disabilities Sunflower – to make the invisible, visible, 13 February 2023, Epilepsy Action
  3. A symbol for non-visible disabilities, Hidden Disabilities Sunflower, UK home page (read September 2026), Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Scheme Limited, What is the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower?; footer
  4. In facts - the Sunflower, Hidden Disabilities Sunflower, facts and misconceptions (read September 2026), Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Scheme Limited
  5. What is the Hidden Disabilities Sunflower?, Hidden Disabilities Sunflower (read September 2026), Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Scheme Limited
  6. Assisted Travel | London Gatwick Airport, Hidden disabilities (read September 2026), London Gatwick Airport, Hidden disabilities
  7. 10 years of the Sunflower, Hidden Disabilities Sunflower, tenth-anniversary post, 2026 (read September 2026), Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Scheme Limited
  8. Airports and airlines around the world, Hidden Disabilities Sunflower (read September 2026), Hidden Disabilities Sunflower Scheme Limited
  9. Please offer me a seat, Read via Internet Archive copy of 20 July 2026, Transport for London
  10. TSA Notification Card: Individuals with Disabilities and Medical Conditions, Transportation Security Administration
  11. Lei prevê uso de fita com desenho de girassóis para identificar pessoa com deficiência não aparente, Agência Câmara, 18 July 2023, Câmara dos Deputados (Brazil)
  12. Ley que modifica los artículos 2 y 7 de la Ley N° 18.651 (Carpeta n.° 415/2025), Text as promulgated, Montevideo, 23 December 2025, Presidencia de la República Oriental del Uruguay, Artículo 2°
  13. 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design, 28 CFR part 35 and 36; 2010 Standards, U.S. Department of Justice, §216, §703.7.2
  14. International Symbol of Access, Rehabilitation International (read October 2026), Rehabilitation International, The Symbol
  15. Guidance on the International Symbol of Accessibility, U.S. Access Board, 27 March 2017, U.S. Access Board, Use of the ISA Under the ADA
  16. The Accessible Icon Project, Sara Hendren, “An Icon is a Verb: About the Project” (2016) and “Notes on Design Activism” (2015), The Accessible Icon Project, Home
  17. New York Executive Law § 101, Accessibility, rules and regulations; read via Internet Archive copy (nysenate.gov refuses the fetcher), New York State Senate, § 101(2)
  18. Downloadable Disability Access Symbols, Rebecca Blake, Graphic Artists Guild, Graphic Artists Guild, Introduction; Audio Description; Closed Captioning (CC); Sign Language Interpretation
  19. Universal Symbols of Access, Canadian Association of the Deaf, position paper; read via Internet Archive copy of 21 March 2023 (cad.ca no longer resolves), Canadian Association of the Deaf – Association des Sourds du Canada, Universal Symbols of Access

Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research