The symbol has also helped fuel the misconception of: “you don’t look disabled” to people who do not have visible disabilities. It can also have an inherently medical, ableist (discrimination and social prejudice against people with disabilities or who are perceived to have disabilities ableism characterizes persons as defined by their disabilities and as inferior to the non-disabled), and male connotation (the person in the symbol is sometimes perceived as being a man a disability symbol should represent everyone). While this symbol is easily recognized, it’s problematic as a symbol for the disabled community, since using a wheelchair only captures one very narrow dimension of disability. The most commonly known and used symbol for people with disabilities is the wheelchair symbol ♿. It also covers a bit about person-first and disability-first/identity-first language.ĭisability Pride Flag – Google Doc version of the page. The following page covers the topic of disability pride flags.