Request for immediate changes to PERSON WITH WHITE CANE (etc) emoji
Sai
sai at fiatfiendum.org
Thu Jun 6 12:45:34 CDT 2024
Dear Unicode Consortium and implementers,
# Reference and background
The emoji 🧑🦯 (and the various gender, skin tone & facing variants)
represent blind people using a long white guide cane. (I'm one, hi.)
My thanks to Ash Holland, CCed, who found the issue below and pointed it
out to me. The text below is my own.
## Terminology
Per World Blind Union (WBU) norms, I use the term "blind" to include anyone
with visual disability sufficient to benefit from a cane. This includes
"visually impaired" (VI), "partially sighted", etc.
Equipment terminology varies by country.
The kind of cane used by blind people for walking at speed in public,
typically sternum to forehead length and covered in mostly white reflective
tape, is called a "guide cane", "long cane", and/or "white cane". Some
manufacturers, notably Ambutech (one of the largest), use "mobility cane".
I'm going to just use "cane" to refer to this.
In the UK, but not US, "guide cane" refers to a very short (lower than
sternum, roughly waist to ribs length) cane which can be used for limited
mobility, as opposed to "long cane" which has the meaning above. (In the US
these terms are synonymous for the long version, and short canes like this
aren't really a thing.) "ID cane" or "symbol cane" is a very short cane,
not long enough to touch the ground, used for signaling purposes (and light
indoor use), not navigation.
Countries differ in colour usage. Globally, an all white cane always means
some type of blindness. In the US, all white or white with one red section
canes are default and interchangeable; two separate red sections indicate
deaf-blind. In the UK and other countries, one red section may indicate
deaf-blind. Some South American countries use green, orange, and other
colours as well, e.g. to indicate visually impaired as opposed to totally
blind. And, worldwide, other colours are sometimes used just for fun or
fashion.
The above are all used specifically by blind people. These are distinct
from a "support cane", like a hiking stick, which is used by both sighted
and blind people with mobility issues like strength, stamina, or balance.
(Including me — I walk with both a cane and white-taped hiking stick.)
## Unicode of cane use emoji
The cane emoji solo is
https://www.unicode.org/emoji/charts/emoji-list.html#1f9af
1355 U+1F9AF <https://www.unicode.org/emoji/charts/emoji-list.html#1f9af>
[image:
🦯] <https://www.unicode.org/emoji/charts/full-emoji-list.html#1f9af> white
cane accessibility | blind | white cane
The person using cane are all ZWJ emoji, not solo codepoints
https://www.unicode.org/emoji/charts/emoji-list.html#1f9d1_200d_1f9af
423 U+1F9D1 U+200D U+1F9AF
<https://www.unicode.org/emoji/charts/emoji-list.html#1f9d1_200d_1f9af>
🧑🦯
person with white cane accessibility | blind | person with white cane
424 U+1F9D1 U+200D U+1F9AF U+200D U+27A1 U+FE0F
<https://www.unicode.org/emoji/charts/emoji-list.html#1f9d1_200d_1f9af_200d_27a1_fe0f>
🧑🦯➡️
⊛ person with white cane facing right
425 U+1F468 U+200D U+1F9AF
<https://www.unicode.org/emoji/charts/emoji-list.html#1f468_200d_1f9af>
👨🦯
man with white cane accessibility | blind | man | man with white cane
426 U+1F468 U+200D U+1F9AF U+200D U+27A1 U+FE0F
<https://www.unicode.org/emoji/charts/emoji-list.html#1f468_200d_1f9af_200d_27a1_fe0f>
👨🦯➡️
⊛ man with white cane facing right
427 U+1F469 U+200D U+1F9AF
<https://www.unicode.org/emoji/charts/emoji-list.html#1f469_200d_1f9af>
👩🦯
woman with white cane accessibility | blind | woman | woman with white cane
428 U+1F469 U+200D U+1F9AF U+200D U+27A1 U+FE0F
<https://www.unicode.org/emoji/charts/emoji-list.html#1f469_200d_1f9af_200d_27a1_fe0f>
👩🦯➡️
⊛ woman with white cane facing right
These also all take skin tone variants, e.g. person with white cane dark
skin tone 🧑🏿🦯.
# The problem with current cane emoji
In nearly all implementations listed at
https://emojis.wiki/person-with-white-cane/ , these are depicted with the
person having their hand through the cane's bungee loop as if it were a
wrist strap.
This is both wrong and, as an implicit norm/suggestion, it is dangerous
misinformation that may cause real world fatalities to cane users.
Not all canes have bungee loops — fixed length or telescoping canes with
screw on tips often don't. For canes that do have one, the bungee loop on
canes is _not_ a wrist strap, as the current emoji depictions suggest.
The loop is for two primary purposes:
1. structure (for both sectional canes and canes with "hook on" type tips,
which operate by bungee tension along the entire length of the cane between
the top knot and the tip)
2. storage (for sectional canes, to hold them collapsed, by pulling a
narrow loop around the collapsed bundle).
It can also be incidentally used, when standing and holding it vertically,
to rest one's hand by hooking a finger in the loop; or for hanging the cane
on a wall hook or hat/coat rack.
However, one should _never_ have one's hand through the loop, as depicted
in these emoji. This is because if the tip gets caught on a moving
jogger/bicycle/vehicle/train/etc, and the hand is through the loop, the
cane user will get yanked and likely injured, possibly fatally (e.g. if
dragged into a large vehicle at speed).
The current emoji are therefore both:
1. inaccurate in depicting the loop as if it were a wrist strap, which it
is not, and
2. actually dangerous misinformation liable to cause real world physical
injuries, because they implicitly normalise the idea of misusing the loop
as a wrist strap, which a current or future cane user would therefore be
more likely to do, thus leading to physical injury to that person — up to
and including death.
## Specific critique of implementations, including non hazardous
inaccuracies
* Apple
Dangerous: none.
Inaccurate: lower fingers not wrapped around the grip; grip pinched between
thumb and index finger.
Rare: hand holding the loop.
* Facebook
Dangerous: use of loop as a wrist strap.
Inaccurate: cane body in grey rather than white; loop with thickness of a
hiking pole strap.
Rare: cane is extremely short, though this is proportionate to comic style.
* Google
Dangerous: use of loop as a wrist strap.
Inaccurate: cane body in grey rather than white.
Rare: cane is short.
* Microsoft
Dangerous: use of loop as a wrist strap.
Inaccurate: cane body in grey rather than white; cane held like a walking
stick; cane coming out the pinky end; cane held at the top of the handle;
cane held without a thumb; cane at different angle than forearm.
Rare: cane is short.
* Samsung
[image: image.png]
Dangerous: use of loop as a wrist strap.
Inaccurate: cane body in grey rather than white; loop with thickness of a
hiking pole strap.
Rare: none.
* Twitter
Dangerous: use of loop as a wrist strap.
Inaccurate: cane body in grey rather than white; cane handle with a flange
like a hiking pole; hand resting over the top like a hiking pole; cane at
different angle than forearm.
Rare: cane is short.
* WhatsApp
Dangerous: use of loop as a wrist strap.
Inaccurate: cane body in grey rather than white; cane held reversed, with
palm facing away from the user's body; cane at different angle than forearm.
Rare: none.
## Further examples in solo white cane emoji
All of the above issues are likewise reflected in the implementations of
emoji for a white cane alone, see https://emojis.wiki/white-cane/
For instance, Facebook's implementation
[image: image.png]
incorrectly depicts a hiking stick style wide wrist strap, depicted in an
open manner suggesting it should be used as a wrist strap.
Google's implementation
[image: image.png]
incorrectly depicts a wrist strap that pierces the cane handle for a load
bearing design, like on a hiking stick. The bungee loop of a cane comes out
the tip of the handle, since it is a structural element of the hook tip or
collapsible cane assembly itself (the cane is hollow and the bungee cord
runs its entire length), not an added component meant to be load bearing
like on a hiking stick.
Twitter's implementation
[image: image.png]
again shows a flange, such as on a hiking stick, which does not exist on
canes; and shows the loop in an outstretched position suggesting that a
hand is meant to go through it, rather than it being left alone when in use.
# Requested changes
## Immediate changes
Because the current implementations pose a risk of causing actual physical
harm, I request the following changes be made as soon as possible.
1. Unicode: Change the implementation definition for all variants of
A. the person with white cane emoji:
The loop MUST NOT be around the user's wrist.
The loop MAY, at implementer's discretion,
a. hang downwards,
b. be held against the handle by the caning hand palm,
c. be tied along the cane handle, or
d. be omitted entirely.
B. the white cane emoji:
The loop, if depicted, MUST NOT be suggestive of a wrist strap in width or
positioning.
2. All implementers: Please change all cane use emoji accordingly, without
waiting for a Unicode change.
I suggest just removing the loop entirely.
## Normative change and extension for cane colour semantics
3. Unicode: Change the implementation definition, and add combining forms,
for accuracy and to represent semantically different canes:
A. Normative cane grip
When depicted in use (i.e. in extended grip), the cane SHOULD be held:
a. in golf grip, palm facing body
b. with the caning hand palm on the outside edge of the handle
c. thumb curling around over the top
d. other fingers curling around under the bottom
e. with cane extending out the thumb side of the hand.
B. Cane colour coding
The cane SHOULD be either:
a. entirely white, or white with the bottom section red, at implementer's
discretion (default)
c. white with two bottom sections red, separated by a white section (if
combined ZWJ with U+1F9CF 🧏 DEAF PERSON)
d. entirely a vibrant colour (if combined ZWJ with a colour)
with "white" being as close to vibrant white as feasible given artistic
style (e.g. presence of drawn outlines, 'reflective' patches, etc) and the
need to be distinguishable on a white background.
All implementers: Please change depictions accordingly.
## Structural change
In light of this having gotten implemented in a way that indicates Unicode
and implementers clearly have no experience actually using a cane, and were
oblivious to the inaccuracy and possible harm of these depictions — and it
wasn't caught before now — I also request a structural change.
4. For all current and future emoji involving disabled people or their
equipment, specifically consult the largest umbrella group run by such
people, and their major national or higher level member organisations, to
get their feedback on the exact details of both the abstract proposal and
its implementations.
In the case of blind people, that umbrella group is the World Blind Union
(WBU). I have therefore CCed the WBU President.
I have also CCed the two largest US blind organisations, American Council
of the Blind (ACB) and National Federation of the Blind (NFB). I am a
member of both.
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Sai
President, Fiat Fiendum, Inc., a 501(c)(3)
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