International Symbol of Access (wheelchair symbol)

How to read it

The International Symbol of Access (ISA), which the US ADA Standards call the International Symbol of Accessibility, is the simplified profile of a person seated in a wheelchair. Rehabilitation International adopted it in 1969, and it is part of ISO 7001, the international standard for public information symbols. In the United States the 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design reproduce it and require it on accessible parking spaces, on accessible entrances where not every entrance is accessible, and on accessible check-out aisles, among other places. The Graphic Artists Guild, which publishes a free set of access symbols, notes that people pushing baby carriages, luggage or packages use ramps too, and suggests words beside the symbol that name the feature, such as “Ramped Entrance”.

Also searched as: accessible symbol, disabled symbol, handicap symbol, International Symbol of Accessibility, ISA, ISO 7001 wheelchair, wheelchair sign, wheelchair symbol.

Where it came from

By the late 1960s France, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States each had their own access symbols, Rehabilitation International (RI) recalls. Its secretary-general Norman Acton asked Karl Montan, chair of RI’s International Commission for Technical Aids, for a symbol that could be identified from a reasonable distance, described itself and had no secondary meaning. Susanne Koefoed, a Danish graphic design student, won with a stick figure using a wheelchair. A circle was added on top as a head, and RI’s World Congress adopted the symbol in 1969. The US Access Board dates the design competition to 1968. RI decided against patenting or trademarking the symbol and set only its specifications; ISO endorsed it, and the United Nations followed in 1974.

What the ADA Standards require

The 2010 ADA Standards for Accessible Design require the symbol on accessible parking spaces (van spaces add the words “van accessible”), on accessible entrances, elevators and toilet rooms where not all of them are accessible, and on accessible check-out aisles. The US Access Board adds that the Department of Transportation’s vehicle standards require it on accessible vehicles, and that the International Building Code, ICC A117.1, NFPA 5000, NFPA 170 and the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices require it too. The Board’s reason for one symbol is that uniform signs are easier to read, especially for people with low vision or cognitive disabilities.

Does it have to be blue?

Not under the ADA Standards. They ask only for contrast: a light symbol on a dark background or a dark symbol on a light one. The parking signs the Accessible Icon Project set out to change were blue and white, and the project calls white on blue the standard colour scheme of the original.

Look-alikes

The Accessible Icon is a redrawn wheelchair symbol: its figure leans forward with an arm back on the wheel, where the ISA’s figure sits upright with its arm straight out in front. The US Access Board’s guidance is that a symbol other than the ISA does not comply with the ADA Standards unless it gives equivalent access.