The apple brand has unveiled a series of new emojis, to further diversify its offer and stick best to all types of disabilities.
Apple has proposed its emojis to the Unicode Consortium, in charge of their validation. At first, nine disabilities are represented. One can see a person with a white cane, two guide dogs, an ear with a hearing aid, a deaf person, a person in an electric wheelchair and another in a manual chair and a prosthetic arm and leg.
As the consortium explains, "Apple is asking for the addition of emoji to better represent people with disabilities." Currently, emojis offer a wide range of options but do not represent the experiences of people with disabilities.
According to Apple, this is a "starting point", not a "complete list of all possible representations of disabilities". The company has also collaborated with associations such as the American Council of the Blind (the equivalent of the Braille League in the United States), the Cerebral Palsy Foundation (which deals with people with cerebral palsy), and the National Association of the Deaf (for deaf people). "At Apple, we believe that technology should be accessible to all and offer an experience that meets individual needs Add iconic emojis to life experiences of users helps foster a diverse culture including disability." Emoji are a universal language and a powerful communication tool, as well as a form of self-expression, and can be used not only to represent one's own experience, but also to show support for a loved one. "
If the emojis are validated, they would join the Unicode 12.0 list, scheduled for the first half of 2019.
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