DBA Inclusive Design Challenge 2007
An awareness campaign and kitemark system designed to create a more mobility aware society.
In 1969 the now familiar pictogram by Danish designer Sussanne Koefoed of a stick figure in a wheelchair was adopted as the international standard for disability. There have been moves to change its passive upright posture to a more active once but as yet no compelling alternative has emerged despite its unrepresentative nature.
Mobility is the key to independent living and the statistics relating to falls are grim. Every five hours in the UK someone dies as a result of a fall and they kill more people over 65 than cancer or coronary heart disease. Yet only five percent of disabled people are wheelchairs users. While the pictogram shows the extreme consequences of mobility loss, the subtlety and range of disability issues it aims to cover are ignored. It gives no picture or warning of potential risk and the sign sets apart the population it aims to integrate. All in all it begs the question how one can signal vulnerability in a way that is subtle, unequivocal and elicits awareness, empathy and a desire to help?
The design team wanted the logo to be a bullet of information that was "arresting, intriguing and jarring" and made sense in symbolic terms. They rejected red the colour of danger and chose instead a lively pink for the symbol - an arrow and its partner with one part of the arrowhead missing. Side by side they suggest the M for mobility and the helping hand that can make a difference.
The sign can be drawn, applied, printed and campaigned and used as a way of encouraging people to offer help and keep offering. In other situations, it could signal the need for increased levels of vigilance - the symbol could be painted on uneven or dangerous surfaces or at the beginning of transition areas in buildings where the lighting is poor or the surface changes abruptly. The simplicity of the symbol would allow a doctor to signal a patient's vulnerability and level of risk. It could be drawn or stamped on medical notes and become a vital and constant point of reference for staff in busy healthcare settings who can know at a glance who has a tendency to fall. For the general population, the symbol printed on a package of medicine could indicate that it causes drowsiness and increases the risk of a fall.
The possibilities are endless - it could be stamped on a bus pass to alert the driver of a passenger's need for assistance or posted on a route planner or website to indicate areas where extra care is necessary. Conversely the symbol can be placed on products that enhance mobility such as shoes with soles that grip.
The Go Steady initiative would need to be launched initially by a public body in collaboration with a coalition of organisations concerned with health, age and disability. Once established, however, it would have a viral life of its own and importantly one that speaks to all.
Care home workers, medical staff, older people and those of different ages with mobility impairments.
A ground-breaking proposal for an initiative that resolves the dilemma of a communications campaign and kitemark that will signal vulnerability elicit awareness, empathy and a desire to help but does not stigmatize those to whom it applies. The judges liked the way the team had turned a negative into a positive and effectively tackled a large-scale problem that has long resisted satisfactory answers.
