New disabilities Emojis coming to your phone soon

By Annette Godwin
April 22, 2018

Recently, Apple has been stepping its game up in order to make its audience more comfortable. Personally, I am happy about their addition of 13 new emojis reflecting people with disabilities. These 13 new emojis are supposed to be released in the middle of 2019.

Screenshot photo from Verge.com like the fact that Apple wants each emoji to represent people with disabilities in any way they can.

However, my biggest concern is that people might make fun of the new emojis, or those who have disabilities.

According to The Verge, Apple proposed these new emojis in order to better represent hearing aids, guides and people with disabilities.

“Tthe emoji list for 2018 has been completed, and is due to come to major mobile platforms during the second half of this year,” Shannon Laio said in a submission to the Unicode Consortium.

The new suite of emojis includes a hearing aid, people using canes or wheelchairs, a guide dog and prosthetic limbs. There are 13 new emoji suggested in total, with 45 if you count skin tone options. “Apple says the emojis are just a starting point, hinting that there might be more accessibility emoji to come,” Liao said.

screenshot from washable.com

Yes, you can change the skin tone as well. While some may disagree with this, I personally think this is a positive thing that could prevent miscommunication or negative feedback with the new emojis.

People who have disabilities may not be able to do a lot of the day to day things that most people can do. Therefor, I am glad that Apple is making them feel more welcome and included in any way they can.

According to CNN, Apple (AAPL) said it chooses options that are most inclusive to people in four main categories: blind and low vision, deaf and hard of hearing, physical motor disabilities and hidden disabilities.

The new emojis represent the experience that most people may or may not understand.

As most people may or may not know, whenever a new app or new items come out, it is most likely to travel around the world faster than a blink of an eye.  “The emojis must first be adopted by Unicode,” so that each future on any phone that comes with emojis can be designed profit for the phones.

In a positive light, these new emojis can actually be a big help to people with disabilities. This is, as long as other people do not abuse them. 

In addition to the disability emojis, there are also going to be even more emojis added to the list as well. According to CNN, 157 new emojis will come later this year. The latest additions include animals, superheroes, new hairstyles and more expressive smiley faces.

I am glad Apple is providing the opportunity to outline a series of the new emojis. If anything, I think these new emojis are overdue, and that they should have been in the new emoji many years ago. However, they can still be a great game changer for a lot of people around the world. 

I think it is a great thing that someone was able to create emojis describing how some people may have different disabilities. I do not see a problem with this, because they will most likely make people with disabilities feel more comfortable. 

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Annette Godwin

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