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Facts and data on pictograms Literature

Full Accessibility

Synonyms / Other Terms Used

Accessible, Accessible Facility, Accessible Route, Barrier-free Access, Barrier-free Mobility, Disabled, Handicapped, Reduced Mobility, Wheelchair Accessible, Wheelchair Facility, Wheelchair User, Wheelchair, Wheelchairs

Category

General Access, Public Facilities

Message / Function

To indicate routes and facilities with full accessibility (including the location of an accessible toilet)

 

Source Description
Pictogram Handicapped from the Universal and International Exhibition Montreal (Expo 67) X'67 Side view of chair, circle superimposed indicating wheel
Pictogram indicating barrier-free access by Susanne Koefoed Koefoed Side view of wheelchair with arm- and footrest, but without caster wheels
International Symbol of Accessibility ISA 1969 Side view of sitting stick figure with arm on armrest, arc below as wheelchair
ISO 7000 Reference No 0100: Provision for the disabled or handicapped persons ISO 7000 Side view of sitting stick figure with arm on armrest, arc below as wheelchair
Eco-Mo Foundation Pictogram A09 - Accessibility Eco-Mo
Foundation		 Side view of sitting stick figure with arm on armrest, arc below as wheelchair
Tern Pictogram TS2940 Accessibility Tern Side view of sitting stick figure with arm on armrest, arc below as wheelchair
US Traffic Sign RM-080 Handicapped MUTCD Side view of sitting stick figure with arm on armrest, arc below as wheelchair
NÖ Familienpass: Barrier-free Access NÖ Familienpass Side view of sitting stick figure with arm on armrest, arc below as wheelchair
Transport for London: Pictogram Wheelchair Facility Transport for
London		 Side view of sitting stick figure with arm on armrest, arc below as wheelchair
DB (1994) Pictogram No 22: Handicapped DB Side view of sitting human figure with arm on armrest, arc below as wheelchair
UIC 413 Pictogram B.6.13: Wheelchair User UIC 413 Side view of sitting human figure with arm on armrest, arc below as wheelchair
ISO 7001 Public Information Symbol PI AC 001, PI PF 006 Full accessibility or toilets - accessible ISO 7001 Side view of sitting human figure with arm on armrest, arc below as wheelchair
BS 8501 Public Information Symbol No 4106: Accessible Facility, Accessible Route BS 8501:2002 Side view of human figure with arm on armrest, arc below as wheelchair
ineltec Basel: Pictogram Wheelchairs Available ineltec Side view of sitting human figure with arm on armrest, arc below as wheelchair
U.S. National Park Service Map Symbol: Wheelchair Accessible U.S. National
Park Service		 Side view of human figure with arm on armrest, arc below as wheelchair
Hora page 142, Hospitality Symbol Signs System: Accessibility HSSS Side view of human figure with arm on armrest, arc below as wheelchair
ÖNORM A 3011 Public Information Symbol No 53: Wheelchair User ÖNORM A 3011 Side view of human figure in wheelchair with arm on armrest
Pictogram No 24: Disabled Zurich Airport Side view of human figure in wheelchair with arm on armrest
Modley & Myers page 100, Summer Olympics Munich 1972: Pictogram Handicapped O'72 Side view of human figure in wheelchair with arm on armrest
Pictogramas Universales de Madrid, Pictogram Reduced Mobility (Mobilidad reducida), designed by Avanti, Barcelona Avanti PUM Side view of human figure in wheelchair with arm on armrest
Hodson page 72, Lanit: Accessibility Symbol by Andrey Trukhan, 2014 Lanit Side view of human figure in wheelchair with arm on armrest
Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft, Berlin, adlerschmidt, 2008: Suitable for Wheelchair Users adlerschmidt Side view of human figure in wheelchair with arm on armrest
Wiener Linien Symbol: Wheelchair Wiener Linien Side view of human figure in wheelchair with arm on armrest, horizontal line at bottom
Lunger & Scheiber page 228: Symbol Accessible Toilets or Route from Deutsches Technikmuseum (German Museum of Technology) by GfG DTM Berlin Side view of human figure in wheelchair with arm on armrest
Abdullah & Hübner page 137: Pacific Bell Pictogram Accessible Pacific Bell Side view of human figure in wheelchair with arm on armrest
Herdeg page 27, Expo 1970 in Osaka: Handicapped Expo '70 Side view of human figure in wheelchair
Avanti, L’Illa Diagonal, Barcelona: Pictogram Accessible Avanti LID Side view of human figure in wheelchair
Hodson page 160, Hospital Mater Dei, Brazil: Accessible by Greco Design, 2014 Mater Dei Side view of human figure in outline, in wheelchair
Experience Japan Pictograms: Accessible Facility EJP Side view of human figure in wheelchair
Abdullah & Hübner page 166, Swiss Post: Pictogram Wheelchair Users Swiss Post Side view of human figure in wheelchair, hand on wheel
Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin: Suitable for Wheelchair Users MGBB Side view of stick figure in wheelchair, hand on wheel
Lunger & Scheiber page 396, Olympiastadion Berlin: Pictogram Accessible by Wangler & Abele OS Berlin Side view of human figure in wheelchair, hand on wheel
ÖBB Pictogram Wheelchair User ÖBB 2007 Side view of human figure in wheelchair, arm position indicating activity
Pictogram Disabled, Reduced Mobility / Discapacitado, Movilidad reducida (Chile) Transantiago Side view of human figure in wheelchair, arm position indicating activity
Modley & Myers page 102, Picto'grafics: Pictogram Handicapped Picto'grafics Side view of stick figure in wheelchair, arm position indicating activity
IKEA Pictogram: Accessibility Service IKEA Side view of human figure in wheelchair, arm position indicating activity
Pictogram Accessible by Bortoletti, Saccenti, Saliani for Iuav University of Venice, Italy IUAV Side view of human figure in wheelchair
Hodson page 30: Toilet for Handicapped (Invalid Toilet) by Asya Kolokolova, 2014 Kolokolova Side view of human figure in wheelchair
Hodson page 197, Intégral Ruedi Baur: Accessible Integral Side view of human figure in wheelchair, hand on wheel
Guemil Project: Disabled Guemil Side view of human figure in wheelchair, arm position indicating activity
Hochschule für ­Technik und Wirtschaft, Berlin, adlerschmidt 2012: Suitable for Wheelchair Users adlerschmidt Side view of human figure in wheelchair, arm position indicating activity
Icon Barrier-free Mobility from Handbuch wien.gv.at (Vienna) Handbuch wien.gv.at Side view of human figure in wheelchair, arm position indicating activity
Access Symbol by Brendán Murphy Murphy Side view of human figure in wheelchair, arm position indicating activity
Pictogram Accessible from Daniel Choi Design Daniel Choi Design Side view of human figure in wheelchair, arm position indicating activity
No 15 - Disabled Access Lift KSA Side view of human figure in wheelchair, arm position indicating activity
Smitshuijzen page 344: Accessible by Ota Ota S Side view of human figure in wheelchair, arm position indicating activity
Accessible Icon Project Logo AIP Side view of human figure in wheelchair, posture indicating fast movement
Microsoft: Pictogram Accessible Microsoft Side view of human figure in wheelchair in outline, posture indicating fast movement
Marshalls: Pictogram Accessible Marshalls Side view of human figure in wheelchair, two arcs indicating movement
Accessible: Career Moves Logo Career Moves Side view of active human figure in wheelchair, arms and shoulder as swung dash

Note: Some of the examples shown above were mirrored horizontally to contrast differences.

Discussion

A view at the table above implies something like an agreement on how to indicate routes and facilities with full accessi­bility, as almost all variants pre­sent a side view of human figure on a wheel chair. Differences mostly are found just in some fine details, but some vary in significant aspects:

At the time of the creation of the International Symbol of Accessibility (ISA) several organizations had their indi­vidual concepts to indicate accessible facilities. Due to excellent promotion and the inclusion of this symbol into ISO 7000 it was used worldwide and became widely accepted. While most of the older picto­grams show a rather static and passive wheelchair user, later designs reflect societal changes also mirrored in language by using the word accessible instead of handicapped and show a move towards displaying active and inde­pendent wheelchair users by changing arm position and posture. In this effort to change how people with disabilities are seen, some go even farther and try to signal fast movement like in the variants shown at the bottom of the table. But such symbols ignore the fact that people with more serious dis­abilities cannot move dynamically and have to rely on some kind of assistance. More information on this discussion can be found for example in the Fact Sheet about the International Symbol of Accessibility, Ben-Moshe et.al. (2007) 'Sign of our times? Revis(it)ing the International Symbol of Access, the website of the The Accessible Icon Project, and many others.

Research data on comprehensibility of symbols concerning accessibility is rather limited in our database:

In a Japanese study to propose domesti­cally unified graphical symbols based on scientific methods, the pictogram variant labeled as Eco-Mo Foundation reached a score of 94.7 in a Comprehension Test according to ISO 9186 FDIS 1999, an excellent value (Eco-Mo Foundation, 2001). In an earlier Comprehension Test (Brugger, 1979), 92 % of the answers concerning the variant from the Austrian standard ÖNORM A 3011 could be classi­fied as correct when applying lenient scoring. Answers at that time were quite hetero­geneous, like for example Wheel­chair (17 %), Wheel­chair User (11 %), Handi­capped (34 %), Disabled (10 %), or Route for Disabled (8 %). And in a project from Brazil examining a variant similar to the official ISA symbol, only 22.6 % of the responses were classified as correct regarding the definition: Access for Physical Impaired (Fiori, 2008). In case of this referent strictness of response categorization and scoring is essential for comprehensibility results. We recommend lenient scoring, as respondents often do not provide detailed answers.

Further test data is mostly on specific applications of accessibility symbols or on perception of disability and other related aspects.

Recommendations

Accessible

At the moment we recommend using a pictogram similar to ISO 7001 public information symbol PI AC 001, formerly PI PF 006, to indicate routes and facilities with full accessibility, including the location of an accessible toilet.

In the long term we suggest development of a pictogram displaying a somewhat more active and independent wheelchair user that could also represent a person with serious disabilities as for example in the variants from Transantiago and the Guemil Project, and include these in a testing program also covering the ISA and ISO 7001 variants as well as the Accessible Icon Project version. Besides aspects concerning the perception of disability such a program should also include a Comprehension Test providing some context information to get realistic results. This method also helps to identify possible mis­interpretations and delivers hints to improve designs.

On the other hand quite a number of experts (e.g. comments in Hora, 2017, but also from personal communication) recommend staying with the International Symbol of Accessibility for several reasons. They even reject adaptions made for the ISO 7001 guideline example and advocate using the International Symbol of Accessibility also in the future.

Tests of pictograms of referent Accessible, Full Accessibility

Barstow, B.A., Vice, J., Bowman, S., et al. (2019): Examining perceptions of existing and newly created accessibility symbols. Disability and Health Journal 2019, 12(2): 180-186.

Brugger, Ch. (1979): Abschlußbericht über den Erkennungstest. Report to the Austrian Standards Institute (ON) dated 09/79, Vienna.

Eco-Mo Foundation (2001): Test data of public information symbols in Japan - Procedure for the testing of public information symbols by the Study Committee. ISO: ISO/TC 145/SC 1 N 329.

Fiori, S.R. (2008): Mapas para o turismo e a interatividade - proposta teórica e prática. Tese de Doutorado - Depto. de Geografia, FFLCH-USP.

Jensen, C. (2015): International Symbol of Access: The perception of disability. University of Washington Bothell.

Vice, J., Barstow, B.A., Bowman, S., Mehta, T., Padalabalanarayanan, S. (2020): Effectiveness of the International Symbol of Access and inclusivity of other disability groups. Disability and Health Journal, Volume 13, Issue 1, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dhjo.2019.100836.

See also

Entrance, Exit, Toilets, Elevator

 

Updated 2024-10-30 by Ch.Brugger