1000s of other unique customisable designs available, CLICK HERE to visit our main site at http://www.jnniepce.com/ The International Symbol of Access (ISA), also known as the (International) Wheelchair Symbol, consists of a blue square overlaid in white with a stylised image of a person using a wheelchair. It is maintained as an international standard, ISO 7001, and a copyrighted image of the International Commission on Technology and Accessibility (ICTA), a committee of Rehabilitation International. It was designed by Susanne Koefoed in 1968. The symbol is often seen where access has been improved, particularly for wheelchair users, but also for other mobility issues. Frequently, the symbol denotes the removal of environmental barriers, such as steps, to help also older people, parents with baby carriages, and travellers. Universal design aims to obviate the need for such symbols by creating products and facilities that are accessible to nearly all users from the start. The wheelchair symbol is "International" and therefore not accompanied by Braille in any particular language. Specific uses of the ISA include: * Marking a parking space reserved for vehicles used by disabled people/blue badge holders * Marking a vehicle used by a disabled person, often for permission to use a space * Marking a public lavatory with facilities designed for wheelchair users * Indicating a button to activate an automatic door * Indicating an accessible transit station or vehicle * Indicating a transit route that uses accessible vehicles The ISA is assigned the Unicode codepoint U+267F, showing as ♿ A compatible font such as DejaVu Sans must be installed to view the character. Building codes such as the California Builders Code, Section 1117B.5.8 Symbols of Accessibility require "a white figure on a blue background. The blue shall be equal to Colour No. 15090 in Federal Standard 595B." Disability is defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 as "a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities." An individual may also qualify as disabled if he/she has had an impairment in the past or is seen as disabled based on a personal or group standard or norm. Such impairments may include physical, sensory, and cognitive or intellectual impairments. Mental disorders (also known as psychiatric or psychosocial disability) and various types of chronic disease may also be considered qualifying disabilities. A disability may occur during a person's lifetime or may be present from birth. Current issues and debates surrounding disability include social and political rights, social inclusion and citizenship. In developed countries, the debate has moved beyond a concern about the perceived cost of maintaining dependent people with disabilities to an effort of finding effective ways to ensure that people with disabilities can participate in and contribute to society in all spheres of life. Many are concerned, however, that the greatest need is in developing nations -- where the vast bulk of the estimated 650 million people with disabilities reside. A great deal of work is needed to address concerns ranging from accessibility and education to self-empowerment and self-supporting employment and beyond. In the past few years, disability rights activists have also focused on obtaining full citizenship for the disabled. However obstacles reside in some countries like Canada, in getting full employment, also public perception of disabled people may vary in areas. Some areas disabled people are often thought of as "inhuman". Estimates of worldwide and country-wide numbers of individuals with disabilities are problematic. The varying approaches taken to defining disability notwithstanding, demographers agree that the world population of individuals with disabilities is very large. For example, in 2004, the World Health Organisation estimated a world population of 6.5 billion people, of those nearly 100 million people were estimated to be moderately or severely disabled.[13] In the United States, Americans with disabilities constitute the third-largest minority (after persons of Hispanic origin and African Americans); all three of those minority groups number in the 30-some millions in America.[13] According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census, as of 2004, there were some 32 million disabled adults (aged 18 or over) in the United States, plus another 5 million children and youth (under age 18). If one were to add impairments -- or limitations that fall short of being disabilities -- Census estimates put the figure at 51 million. There is also widespread agreement among experts in the field that disability is more common in developing than in developed nations. The American Psychological Association style guide states that, when identifying a person with an impairment, the person's name or pronoun should come first, and descriptions of the impairment/disability should be used so that the impairment is identified, but is not modifying the person. Improper examples are "a borderline," "a blind person," or "an autistic boy;" more acceptable terminology includes "a woman with Down syndrome" or "a man who has schizophrenia." It also states that a person's adaptive equipment should be described functionally as something that assists a person, not as something that limits a person, e.g. "a woman who uses a wheelchair" rather than "a woman in/confined to a wheelchair." A similar kind of "people first" terminology is also used in the UK, but more often in the form 'people with impairments' (e.g. "people with visual impairments"). However, in the UK, the term "disabled people" is generally preferred to "people with disabilities." It is argued under the social model that while someone's impairment (e.g. having a spinal cord injury) is an individual property, "disability" is something created by external societal factors such as a lack of wheelchair access to their workplace.[4] This distinction between the individual property of impairment and the social property of disability is central to the social model. The term "disabled people" as a political construction is also widely used by international organisations of disabled people, such as Disabled Peoples' International (DPI).