New disability emojis have been released today (17 July), on World Emoji Day.
The new emojis include wheelchair users, men and women using canes, assistance dogs and prosthetic limbs.
DIVERSITY
Both Apple and Google announced the release of the new emojis, as part of the companies’ plans to celebrate diversity across all platforms.
The announcement comes as part of Apple’s desire to become more inclusive and better represent all members of society in their products.
REPRESENTATION
There have long been calls for more representation in Apple’s emojis, and Apple has admitted that the new emojis “help fill a significant gap in the emoji keyboard.”
Though the release date has not been announced yet, they are estimated to be available later this year, in autumn.
PROGRESS
At present the new emojis do not represent all disabilities, Apple says they should be considered a starting point for better representation, which hopefully means more disability emojis will be on their way in the future.
A full list of the new disability emojis can be found below:
- A man and woman using a cane
- An assistance dog
- A prosthetic arm
- A prosthetic leg
- A man and woman using a manual wheelchair
- A man and woman using an electric wheelchair
- A man and woman using sign language
- An ear wearing a hearing aid
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