[il-talk] Apple's Accessability Emoji

[Brian Sumner]

Thank you for sharing this with me. This is a bad example for what Apple is
doing.

On Sat, Mar 24, 2018 at 9:15 PM, Kelly Pierce via IL-Talk <
il-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> In the last few days, Apple proposed new emoji to the worldwide
> standards body of images that reflect accessibility. Two of these
> images show a male and a female figure with white canes. I became
> suspicious when I noticed that the only blindness organization
> consulted by Apple in press reports was the American Council of the
> Blind. A sighted friend examined the emoji’s and found the canes
> appear to only extend to the elbows of the blind people, who appear to
> be age 12. This cane length is below the sternum, which is the minimum
> cane length advocated by the Association for Education and
> Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired. ACB regularly
> affiliates with AER.  The National Federation of the Blind recommends
> that white canes extend past the chin.  It is sad Apple has brazenly
> picked a political side in the white canes and travel debate rather
> than develop an image representative of independent blind travel. The
> blind people in the emoji’s are holding really short white canes with
> red tips and a black golf grip with the nylon cord around their
> wrists, which can often be a safety hazard. If blind people have their
> canes caught in the doors of rapid transit or light rail trains, they
> could be dragged to their deaths when the train rapidly accelerates
> rather than having the cane just knocked out of their hand if a strap
> is not wrapped around their wrist. It sets a poor example of cane use
> to the public and blind people everywhere. I will ask Apple to
> withdraw its submission and create new emoji that actually
> demonstrates safe independent travel.  I hope the national office will
> examine the emoji and follow up with Apple about this imagery.
>
> Kelly
>
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