Universal Accessibility icon...?
Tripped over this just now...The Symbols Inclusion Project...not really what we want, but still interesting.
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Yes thanks Leonie.
You and several others have given good enough reason for me to have another crack at it. At least to improve on the rabbit comparrisons issue. Which are coming in thick and fast
Jack, to be clear, I wan it to represent function help, NOT informational (which already has various well accepted icons - e.g. the question mark, or italisized 'i'
If anyone else wants to give it a bash, please do! I'd suggest SVG format. Too much deatil will make it unusable at small resolutions, to little, and it gets a bit rorschach, and folk think its a rabit or a rude gesture...
Come on guys and gals, I know there are better illustrators in here than me!!
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Garry, nice find. Like the concept, not sold on the icons, yet.
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| Phil Teare wrote: |
| Like the concept, not sold on the icons, yet. |
Me too...although I think the icons are mainly aimed at children - with or without disabilities.
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OK so people have, thusfar, descrided the helping hand as a rabbit (deformed or otherwise), and Papa Smurf
Anyone want to make a better effort?
Last edited by Phil Teare on 19 Jun 2009 05:20 pm; edited 2 times in total
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| Phil Teare wrote: |
| OK so people have thus far have descrided the helping hand as a rabbit (deformed or otherwise), and Papa Smurf
Anyone want to make a better effort? |
Unfortunately, even my stick-men turn out malformed...no good at graphics I'm afraid. I am, however, still looking around for possible alternatives to offer you.
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Hmmm...just came across something from the Disability Advocacy Student Alliance at Washington Univ(USA). They've come up with a logo that covers just about every type of disability. I'm not too keen on the design, but I really like the open door in the background. I find it helps to give off a good, positive feel to the whole thing.
Anyway, logo follows:
Any thoughts anyone? Is it something that can be used - or at least the idea behind it?
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Do I sense a little bit of LGBT2SQQQBLMORMORSS&S and sometimes Y in that logo?
A quick description for Leonie: the logo consists of four symbols, one in each corner—wheelchair man, two hands signing "OK" (I think?), a brain and some Braille that appears to read DA BC—with an open door in the background. The text on the logo reads, "disability advocacy: keeping doors open."
Personally, I think the open arms say it all better! This one is just too busy and tries a little too hard to be inclusive. (Thus the earlier link.)
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[edit]Edited on Saturday morning. It sounded harsher than it was meant to be, so I 've changed a few words.[/edit]
| Jordan Gray wrote: |
| A quick description for Leonie: the logo consists of four symbols, one in each corner—wheelchair man, two hands signing "OK" (I think?), a brain and some Braille that appears to read DA BC—with an open door in the background. The text on the logo reads, "disability advocacy: keeping doors open." |
I would describe it like this:
"The logo consists of four symbols, one in each corner: the standard person in a wheelchair represents any type of physical disability; the two hands signing reflect, obviously, those with hearing impairments; the brain symbol represents a multitude of disabilities - e.g. cognitive disorders, motor control disorders, MS, autism, 'invisible disabilities', etc....etc... The Braille again, obviously, represents those with a VI."
| Jordan Gray wrote: |
| Personally, I think the open arms say it all better! This one is just too busy and tries a little too hard to be inclusive. (Thus the earlier link.) |
Open arms? That could represent an invitation to have a hug; 'the one that got away was this big; 'Look at me. I'm doing an impression of The Angel of the North'; 'Yes dear. I'll hold the wool while you wrap it into a ball'; etc...etc...
With a bit of work, I think the DASA could conceivably work.
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| Gary Miller wrote: |
| Any thoughts anyone? Is it something that can be used - or at least the idea behind it? |
Of course, that's all just IMO...
Jack Pickard The Pickards Information Services| Blog | Twit
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I understand that they're trying to include all manner of disabilities, but I think that trying to visually represent several of them visually won't work. It has clarity, but it's complex and inelegant compared to some of the other representations suggested so far. (Their intentions are laudable, of course, and I salute them for trying.)
The open-armed man flips the accessibility question around a little. Instead of saying "we know there are things you can't do, so we've done something for you," it says "if we've set it up right, you can do it just fine." Instead of asking, "do you need a hand?" it seems to be asking "would you like to join us?" The invitation to a hug isn't such a bad implication, IMHO!
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Right, so, dispite a few pro rabbit/smurf comments (actually the smurf thing wasn't pro at all 
) most folk prefer the open arms to the open hand, I think (although I'm gonna run a pole once I've finnished playing with them)
BTW Garry I'm affraid I agree with jack, that's not really what icons tend to be, and for good reason, they need to be uber simple. One of the problems with the hand is, I think, its a busy thing by nature (all those fingers etc). So it looks crap if too detailed and small, or not detailed enough and big ( leading rabbit/smurf comments...
)
So how do we make the open arms thing look less childish. I find it much more patronising. And I think with some slight tweeks it could be just the trick... I've thought of just lowering the arms slightly. Seems to dampen down the kiddy vibe.
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| Linda wrote: |
| At the moment the site I'm developing doesn't have an "accessibility" page, but I reckon it should have one. That explains how to rezise text and what accesskeys we have used for instance. They're the "standard" ones, but still.
Would be nice to have an icon together with the rss, atom, text-resize and language version icons. Not sure about the hand, it does remind me of the lottery. I've been leaning more towards a question mark or "I" for information. or "A" for accessability? Those resize ones usually have A-, A, A+, so maybe an "A" icon that links to a page which explains how to resize the text makes sense. |
Something like this?
The most obvious issue is that the icon is specific to a language but as a single, simple letter I doubt it would be a problem. Otherwise, I think it ticks a lot of the right boxes and is probably what I will use personally.
Edit: Just read the older thread on this subject and there's a link there which points to a page which came up with virtually the same thing: http://thenthdegree.com/intacces.asp
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I didn't read the original version of what Gary posted, but if he mentioned something about Accessible Hug Man (AHM) looking like a Smurf… Well, fair comment, but for the lack of a hat!
It would be better to have something less ambiguous. My feeling is that although AHM's purpose isn't immediately clear, he at least signifies something positive, as well as being simple and visually pleasing. He's my favourite out of those presented so far, but that's not saying very much given my opinion of all the others. An icon which is not only unambiguous, but also simple and appealing would be best of all, and I just wish I could think of one. James expresses the challenge reasonably and succinctly, while also making it seem more achievable by citing the biohazard symbol—which is at least as broad and complex a concept.
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| Newsgrail wrote: |
|
Something like this?
The most obvious issue is that the icon is specific to a language but as a single, simple letter I doubt it would be a problem. Otherwise, I think it ticks a lot of the right boxes and is probably what I will use personally. Edit: Just read the older thread on this subject and there's a link there which points to a page which came up with virtually the same thing: http://thenthdegree.com/intacces.asp |
Yeah, that's exactly what I want to use.
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