#Access4All Sticker Initiative

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The international symbol of access depicts a stationary person with outstretched arms, sitting idle as if waiting for someone to come give a push from behind. This sign is no good. It represents people with disabilities by portraying a tone of helplessness, but what we need is a tone of empowerment.
Here's The Accessible Icon Project's updated international symbol of access. Notice how it draws our eyes to the person before the wheelchair. Seeing people with disabilities first and foremost as people is empowering. This image is also empowering because it portrays a person who's moving, while the other image portrays a seemingly static object. 
The #Access4All Sticker Initiative turned The Accessible Icon Project's symbol into a weatherproof sticker, which you can use to update instances of the antiquated image around Toronto. Through imagery, we can empower people to reach their full potential.

The #Access4All Sticker is a small yet powerful way to expedite Toronto's transition into a world-leading city that's fit for all human beings.
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​​Find this initiative on instagram @access4all_sticker 
and post your own images using #access4all 

Make a $10 minimum donation to StopGap Foundation 
and receive the following weatherproof stickers by mail:
three 1''x1'', three 2''x2'' and three 4''x4''.
Though it may be possible to convince the city and businesses to formally adopt the new icon, bureaucracies are often slow-moving, and equal access for all can't come soon enough.
The sticker intends to speed up change in three ways:
  • Providing businesses with a quick-fix they can use to update their antiquated imagery with empowering imagery.
  • Helping make the new symbol so commonplace that the city and businesses come to accept it as the new standard and begin using the new icon themselves (as Nanaimo, BC has).
  • ​Since the sticker prompts a shift in attitude towards disability, as more stickers go up, a greater shift in public consciousness will take place. The shift we need is to understand that it's not people who are disabled; it's the places they inhabit. The ultimate goal is the sticker helps lead to increased “funding, rights, provisions and guarantees, policies, and overall better conditions for people with disabilities” (accessibleicon.org).
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​In some cases, the sticker will cover up the outdated accessibility icon, effectively replacing the old icon with the new.

But it's hard to have a one-size-fits-all design since the outdated icon appears in so many different shapes, sizes, colours and textures.
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Not to worry! The sticker can simply be placed next to the old icon. Like so, it raises awareness by highlighting the disparity between the old icon and the new; it questions the status quo and proposes a different way of describing people who experience disability.
The sticker should appeal to whomever identifies as having disability or has friends or family who do. But even if you don't fit the description above, there's no telling that you won't sometime down the road. You may need to spend time recovering from an operation, may become injured, or may lose range of motion due to pregnancy, disease, or aging. Since we can't be sure if or when we will need accessible design, it's in everyone's best interest to have a more accessible city. (For the philosophers out there, this is a spin on John Rawls's veil of ignorance.)

Accessible design also benefits parents with strollers and delivery people.

#Access4all

A photo posted by Access4All_Sticker (@access4all_sticker) on

Free 2”x2” weatherproof stickers are available during regular weekday business hours at 215 Spadina Ave, 4th floor, on the magazine rack next to the elevator. Stickers will also be available Saturday, Sept 24th at Metro Hall for the *free* YIMBY Festival.

Make a minimum $10 donation to StopGap and receive the following weatherproof stickers by mail: three 1''x1'', three 2''x2'', and three 4''x4''

Order 1”x1”, 4”x4” or custom size/colour stickers here.

Learn more about accessibility here:​
  • ​stopgap.ca building ramps for single-step storefronts in Toronto
  • accessibleicon.org creator of the new international symbol of access
  • accessTO.ca a blog-based website providing in-depth reviews of the accessibility of places in Toronto
  • accessnow.me uses crowdsourcing to pin-point the accessibility status of locations on an interactive, international map
  • 99% invisible a podcast episode on the history of the icon for access

This initiative was recently featured in Metro News, CTV News, and CBC Sudbury.