International Symbol of Access

The International Symbol of Access (ISA), also known as the (International) Wheelchair Symbol, consists of a blue square overlaid in white with a stylized image of a person using a wheelchair. It is maintained as an international standard, ISO 7001, and a copyrighted image of the International Commission on Technology and Accessibility (ICTA), a committee of Rehabilitation International.^[1] It was designed by Susanne Koefoed in 1968. Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... YOU SUCK!!!!! ... For other uses, see Square. ... Technically speaking, white is a color, but it is also the combination of all the colors of the visible light spectrum. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Standards are produced by many organizations, some for internal usage only, others for use by a groups of people, groups of companies, or a subsection of an industry. ... The International standard ISO 7001 of the International Organization for Standardization is the standard representation public information symbols. ... Copyright symbol Copyright is a set of exclusive rights regulating the use of a particular expression of an idea or information. ... Rehabilitation International (RI) is an international disability rights organization with a secretariat based in New York U.S.. Founded in 1922, RI has more than 700 member organizations in 90 countries. ...

The symbol is often seen where access has been improved, particularly for wheelchair users, but also for other mobility issues. Frequently, the symbol denotes the removal of environmental barriers, such as steps, to help also older people, parents with baby carriages, and travelers. Universal design aims to obviate the need for such symbols by creating products and facilities that are accessible to nearly all users from the start. The wheelchair symbol is "International" and therefore not accompanied by Braille in any particular language. Universal design, which is related to inclusive design and design for all, is an approach to the design of products, services and environments to be usable by as many people as possible regardless of age, ability or situation. ...

Specific uses of the ISA include:

• Marking a parking space reserved for vehicles used by the disabled
• Marking a vehicle used by a disabled person, often for permission to use a space
• Marking a public lavatory with facilities designed for wheelchair users
• Indicating a button to activate an automatic door
• Indicating an accessible transit station or vehicle
• Indicating a transit route that uses accessible vehicles

The ISA is assigned the Unicode codepoint U+267F,^[2] showing as ♿ Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ...

A compatible font such as DejaVu Sans^[3] must be installed to view the character. The DejaVu fonts are modifications of the Bitstream Vera fonts designed to extend this original for greater coverage of Unicode. ...

References

1. ^ ICTA - International Symbol of Access
2. ^ The Unicode Standard, Version 5.0 211. The Unicode Consortium (2006). Retrieved on 2007-07-26.
3. ^ WHEELCHAIR SYMBOL (U+267F) Font Support. FileFormat.info. Retrieved on 2007-07-26.