The new wheelchair symbol: enabling or disabling disability? A structuralist analysis on the plausibility of the new ISA

In 2012, a new International Symbol of Access (ISA) has been introduced by designers Sara Hendren and Brian Glenny as a counter-image to the ubiquitous wheelchair symbol of Karl Montan. By presenting a new symbol, the designers wanted to draw attention to some of the visual attributes of the former symbol they found problematic, such as its passive and robot-like depiction of a human being, while simultaneously addressing, in a broader sense, the place and the degree of acceptance of the disabled within society. Comparing the two sides of this ‘design activism’, that is creating a more clear and intelligible sign connoting disability and raising a social discussion concerning the disabled, will be the focus of the essay, assessing how the emotional-driven reasons for creating the new symbol might transcend its functionality as plausible ‘ISO symbol’.