Request for immediate changes to PERSON WITH WHITE CANE (etc) emoji

[Doug Ewell]

Sai wrote:

> Dear Unicode Consortium and implementers,
>
> [...]
>
> 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.

The Unicode Consortium provides reference glyphs, but they are not normative; they do not dictate to font vendors exactly how a character must be rendered. This is particularly true for emoji which are implemented as ZWJ sequences, such as the PERSON WITH CANE emoji under discussion here.

As such, Sai’s message is only a call for implementers to change the glyphs in their fonts. The Unicode Consortium has no action item here, urgent or otherwise, because their only reference glyph is of the cane by itself, which (according to Sai) is not incorrect with a strap.

It is unfortunate if we have gotten to the point where the cartoon representation of a human figure in some vendor’s emoji font can be viewed as a safety hazard in and of itself.

--
Doug Ewell, CC, ALB | Lakewood, CO, US | ewellic.org