2023-05-24 15:00:00
[ 매드타임스 장영주 대학생 기자] We live by symbols. When I think of myself and others, the first thing I think of is their symbol. When you think of books or coffee, there are icons that come to mind, and when you think of women and men, the most widely known pictograms come to mind. On the one hand, when I think of someone else, words like neatness and cheerfulness come to mind suddenly. These are all our symbols.
We remember the first thing that comes to mind for a long time. Also, I think that is the main image or atmosphere. The most powerful, single symbol that expresses something also settles down as a proper noun for us. There is not just one symbol for a specific object. The elements that make up something or ‘me’ are diverse and vast. So, what others think and what I think may be different. It is the same with the fact that each person has a different image when they see the word ‘dog’.
Even though there is not only one symbol like this, we go with a unique symbol. Symbols that are once widely known do not disappear because their meanings change or information that is different from the facts. Not all women wear only skirts, but the pictogram in the women’s restroom is a person wearing a skirt. Just as blue is not a unique color for men, and the pictogram of men’s restrooms is blue even though everyone prefers different colors. Globally shared symbols are difficult to change and are taken for granted.
However, there are companies that want to change this symbol.
Sports brand Decathlon talked about a change in this symbol. The symbol that comes to mind when we think of ‘disability’ is a pictogram of a person in a wheelchair. This single pictogram is used in all public places, institutions, parking areas, and facilities for the disabled. Decathlon wanted to break the perception of people with disabilities as just people sitting in wheelchairs.
The ‘disability’ seen by Decathlon is not special or differentiated. not different. I do not sit still because I use a wheelchair. It is dynamic and enjoys the sport you want. It’s common sense, but people don’t recognize it. overlook Although we can see dynamic athletes just by looking at the Paralympic Games, and there are many people who use wheelchairs to move around in their daily lives, the image of ‘disability’ is often thought of as people sitting in wheelchairs.
We have been using disability pictograms for a long time to instill this complacency. Decathlon points out that fact. Using the symbolic color blue as it is, they changed the sign of the parking lot for the disabled by creating symbols for various sports. This campaign is not short-lived and does not stop at changing public space symbols.
Share the various sports symbols they have created so that they can be used. It is made freely available, and it is hoped that the act will slowly change many symbols of the world’s disabled people. In addition, we want to share and spread the use of symbols with the SNS hashtag #AbilitySigns.
There is a “Decathron Accessibility Statement” on the Decathlon website. When they say they aim to bring sport to everyone, everywhere, they aim to ensure that it is accessible “for everyone, including people with disabilities.”
Such efforts exist in Korea as well. Campaigns such as “Everybody’s Dribble” thought that a space that could be reached while dribbling the ball could be reached by a wheelchair. People who love soccer track the way to the stadium through dribbling, and create and provide a map so that wheelchairs can come to the stadium without any obstacles.
In fact, this Decathlon idea is natural. In this world, only people without disabilities do not live. In other words, it is a world where everyone lives differently. In this reality, if there is a space that is difficult for a wheelchair user to move without the help of others, is that really the right space? We have created too many spaces that are only allowed to some. In a situation where one cannot even go to a space for voting by oneself, and in a situation where there is still a subway station without an elevator and a struggle for mobility rights, it is necessary to accurately recognize what is for ‘everyone’ and move forward. Weren’t there people who were excluded from the ‘everyone’ we thought of? Through that thought and cognition, many changes will occur in the future.
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