enabling the disabled

(Readers, be forewarned: this post has nothing to do with Lebanon, which – like most of the Middle East – makes no provisions for handicapped access to any space, public or private.)

The other day, while out shopping the September sales, my mother and I noticed that one of our favorite off-price shops had re-done its signage – including its “handicapped access” sign.

Most handicapped signs look like this:

I had never given much thought to the message these signs might send until I saw the new sign:

What an empowering sign this is. The old one shows a passive wheelchair rider, being pushed or relying on an electric chair to move around. The new sign shows a wheelchair user – or maybe even a wheelchairer, in the way that a person on a bike becomes a biker. Not only is he/she pushing themselves, but you can see the motion thanks to the curved lines.

My uncle was in a wheelchair for thirty years. I love this sign.