Apple proposes emojis to represent people with disabilities

Technology giant Apple has proposed a number of emojis to the Unicode Consortium to better represent people with disabilities and depict accessibility-related tools like hearing aids, guide dogs, and prosthetic limbs.

The proposed emojis depict people who experience blindness or low-vision, those who experience deafness or have trouble hearing, those with physical disabilities, as well as those with hidden disabilities like Autism, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

"At Apple, we believe that technology should be accessible to everyone and should provide an experience that serves individual needs," Apple wrote in a proposal to the Unicode Consortium according to TechCrunch.

"Adding emoji emblematic to users' life experiences helps foster a diverse culture that is inclusive of disability. Emoji are a universal language and a powerful tool for communication, as well as a form of self-expression, and can be used not only to represent one's own personal experience, but also to show support for a loved one," the company statement added.

In order to develop these proposed emojis, Apple worked with the American Council of the Blind, Cerebral Palsy Foundation and National Association for the Deaf.

The Unicode Technical Committee will meet up next month and vote on whether to approve these new emojis.

If approved, these characters would get shortlisted for Emoji 12.0, which is scheduled for a March 2019 release.