Today, 1 in 6 people worldwide live with a disability. Yet, despite growing awareness about the importance of accessibility and inclusive design, there is still a stark lack of visual resources dedicated to this space. In addition, many icons commonly used to depict accessible locations and experiences are often homogenous or uphold negative stereotypes.
On Saturday, October 19th, we partnered with Disability:IN, SVA’s MFA Interaction Design Program, and Canva to host a free community design workshop dedicated to accessibility and inclusive design. Designers, subject matter experts, and engaged citizens spent the day working together to design new icons to represent accessibility principles, technology, and concepts that will fill a critical content gap in iconography.
To kick off the event, participants heard from our partners at Disability:IN and SVA who framed the issue in the context of visual representation and the importance of adopting inclusive design practices.
Disability:IN
Disability:IN’s Director of Marketing and Communications Allyce Torres and Content Coordinator Paul Ciaccia shared key information about the global disability community and issues with representations of the community in visual media. They also provided an overview of how Disability:IN works to help companies be more inclusive.
Pinar Guvenc
Next participants heard from Pinar Guvenc, Partner at Sour, faculty at SVA and Parsons, and Board Member at Open Style Lab. Pinar provided an overview of inclusive design and how to implement inclusive design practices in your work.
The Workshop
Noun Project’s team walked participants through semiotics and symbolism, as well as best practices for icon design. Participants then learned about the icon design process they’d be using for the day to create new icons with their team members.
Groups spent several hours developing concepts and sketching new icons to better represent key terms, from “accessible clothing” to “sensory-friendly environment” and beyond.
Voting
Final icon sketches were displayed gallery-style on the walls so that everyone could easily see the work that was created. Participants then voted for the sketch that best represented each referent.
Critique
After voting was complete, representatives from each group shared their design process and how they selected their final concepts.
Thank You
Thank you to everyone who participated! A collection of 25 icons inspired by this workshop will be vectorized and released into the public domain in January 2025, free for everyone to use.
Special Thanks to Our Partners:
Disability:IN is the leading nonprofit resource for business disability inclusion worldwide. More than 550 corporations partner with Disability:IN to create long-term business and social impact through the world’s most comprehensive disability inclusion benchmarking and reporting tool, the Disability Equality Index; best-in-class conferences and programs; expert counsel and engagement; and public policy leadership. To learn more about Disability:IN’s key initiatives, visit www.disabilityin.org
The MFA Interaction Design Program at the School of Visual Arts explores the edges and possibilities of new technologies toward a more inclusive and accessible world. In this two-year stem-certified graduate program located in the heart of New York City, a community of designers, artists, entrepreneurs, and technologists learn interaction design skills, methods, and mindsets to seed healthier and more diverse futures.
Launched in 2013, Canva is a free online visual communications and collaboration platform with a mission to empower everyone in the world to design. Featuring a simple drag-and-drop user interface and a vast range of templates ranging from presentations, documents, websites, social media graphics, posters, and apparel to videos, plus a huge library of fonts, stock photography, illustrations, video footage, and audio clips, anyone can take an idea and create something beautiful.
About Iconathons
Iconathons are free community design workshops dedicated to developing and growing the world’s visual language. With a focus on civic, DEI, and social impact-centered content, Noun Project partners with world-class organizations to help define and create new public domain icons that fill critical content gaps. Past Iconathon partners include The New York Times, the American Red Cross, the City of San Francisco, the City of Los Angeles, and the Wikimedia Foundation. Interested in getting involved or partnering with us to host an Iconathon? Get in touch here.
