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Bad idea, for so many reasons. 1. It's never a good idea to change something that works just fine. 2. It's just a pictogram. It's not supposed to be a logo to make handicapped people feel good. It's just designed to be a universally recognized symbol that will be recognized by everyone. 3. The old pictogram is already the most recognized symbol in the world. Now instead of having one symbol that is pretty much 100% universally recognized worldwide, we will have two competing symbols, that not everyone might recognize. 4. The new symbol is just bad. It's hard to even tell what it's supposed to represent.
If a change in a sign/symbol representing people makes them feel better about themselves then I don't see a problem with changing the sign. There is a problem with people who claim to represent certain groups being overly sensitive these days--but this sign isn't an example of that in my opinion.
It might make a few of the members of the Church of the Perpetually Offended members looking for something to be offended about a traditional handicapped sign happy for the attention they might get with the new sign, but according to the article it's hardly universally accepted. The article reports mixed reactions to the new sign, including indifference to just plain "what the he!!", and that's also among the handicapped.
The original sign could be just as offensive to the 95% of disabled people who don't need a wheelchair.
Some use crutches, canes, seeing eye dog (when using as oassanger, etc.)
And although it does not include people who need/get special parking permits, over half of all disabilities are "invisible disabilities" (e.g., COPD, uveitis, PTSD from rape, child abuse, etc., chronic pain, Parkinson, Dementia, Schizophrenia, non-24 in the sighted, etc.)
Can you imagine the confusion if folks with all those conditions insisted on having signs representing those conditions? Guess that is why we need just one universal sign, even if it won't make everyone happy.
It might make a few of the members of the Church of the Perpetually Offended members looking for something to be offended about a traditional handicapped sign happy for the attention they might get with the new sign, but according to the article it's hardly universally accepted. The article reports mixed reactions to the new sign, including indifference to just plain "what the he!!", and that's also among the handicapped.
Yet here you are, offended that some people like a new design of a sign better than the old. Ironic. Really that big a deal to you?
Those who constantly complain about supposed political correctness are just as perpetually offended as the original offendees.
I have repeatedly advocated for this when debating taxes, property taxes in particular. People shouldn't be forced to pay for services they don't use.
Of course they should. Do you not understand what a society is or how one functions? Many actions need to be taken for the common good, and we pay for those in common as well, whether we individually are served by every single one of them or not.
I grew up in an era where money was (seemed?) more plentiful (at my college, government workers set up a table urging us to apply for food stamps, regardless of parental income, saying we weren't any making money, so would qualify. I kid you not! This was back in 1974.). But now, fund are (seem?) more limited. In Atlanta recently, for the (Gay) Pride festival, rainbow lines were painted on the sidewalks to welcome visitors and celebrate the event. Nice looking and fun, but I felt it was a waste of money since the lines were only going to be temporary and all the potholes that haven't been repaired for years due to lack of money remain. Changing all the signs seems to be in this category.
Not every disabled person is in a wheelchair. Those that are aren't typically wheelchair racers, as is more depicted by the pictogram. So how would a quadriplegic or nonathletic wheelchair user feel? This could make them feel equally bad!
In the future, new signs could be placed with "Reserved for disabled" since disabled is a more current term than handicapped. Don't know that signs have room for "people with special needs" or "differently abled."
I'm much more concerned with people like some of the gym members where I go who have handicapped tags and who park in handicapped parking while they do an hour or more of working out (yeah, I know, someone could have trouble walking but be able to do swimming or a hand-propelled stationary bike, but most are doing exercises that require lots of cardio and standing/walking.
The new signs are not intended to make those with serious injuries feel any differently about themselves. The targets are actually all you differently-crippled people out there who fail to understand that what makes one fully human is what goes on between the ears. The rest is just a matter of spare parts. At any moment, even the best maintained original equipment can go into a condition of permanent failure for any one of us. We don't change and aren't diminished as people as the result of that. We merely become people who have newly broken spare parts. We may have been taken by surprise in this, but these parts in most cases would have worn out eventually anyway, and technology is allowing more and more people better and better results in adaptation. What even more needs to be repaired at this point is out-dated, counter-factual, unrealistic, and essentially neanderthal nonsense notions about and attitudes towards people who have had such injuries. Those who propose the new signs merely hope that these or some other such sign might be a helpful step in the much needed rehabilitation of so many millions of Americans.
If you'd like to learn more about the broad and very real world of human damage, repair, and enhancement, you would likely find Fixed: The Movie an interesting way to spend a little time. Depending on what's between your own ears, it could be quite an eye-opener.
Last edited by Reynard32; 10-18-2015 at 07:51 AM..
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