News Story

Assistant professor Elizabeth Ellcessor’s paper, “More Than a Symbolic Change: iOS 10 and the Accessible Icon Emoji,” has been published in From the Square, a blog maintained by New York University Press.

The article discusses iOS’s new emoji, particularly its accessibility symbol. While traditional “wheelchair symbols” show a stick figure sitting upright in a simple wheelchair, the new emoji portrays a figure in motion, an adaptation of an icon designed by the Accessible Icon Project, led by activists Brian Glenney and Sara Hendren.

Ellcessor references her book, Restricted Access, in the article, outlining how art and activism overlap in developing projects like the Accessible Icon emoji. She says that both form and content are critical aspects of understanding how the Accessible Icon came to be. Its uses are varied; the Museum of Modern Art now uses the icon in its permanent collection, the state of Connecticut uses it in all its signage and New York City has officially adapted it as well.

The use of the Accessible Icon is spreading, and its presence as an emoji in iOS 10 is a new opportunity for its use and visibility in society, Ellcessor says.

Ellcessor’s research focuses on the intersection of cultural, media and disability studies.

More:

• Read Ellcessor’s article at From the Square.