Depiction of elderly and disabled people on road traffic signs: international comparison

The traffic sign for elderly or disabled people crossing the road was introduced in the United Kingdom in 1981 after a children's competition.¹ It portrays a silhouette of a man with a flexed posture using a cane and leading a kyphotic woman (fig 1). The same sign is also used for frail, disabled, or blind people, even though many of these people are not old. The sign implies that osteopaenic vertebral collapse and the need for mobility aids are to be expected with physical disability as well as with advancing age.

Figure 1.

Elderly people should not be stigmatised as being impaired or inevitably disabled. We had observed that some countries did not depict these groups in this way and wondered how road signs worldwide illustrate elderly people, as well as people with physical disabilities.

Participants, methods, and results

We obtained addresses from the British Diplomatic List 2001,² and we wrote to each of the 178 British diplomats and consuls at all British missions abroad. We requested a picture, photograph, or other image of any road sign that warned about elderly people, as well as deaf people, blind people, or any other people in the neighbourhood with a physical disability. If we received no reply after eight weeks, we wrote again. We followed up countries that failed to respond by contacting their embassies in the United Kingdom with up to two further letters. We also searched the world wide web for pictures of road traffic signs specific to each country.

We received 119 replies from British missions abroad and seven replies from British embassies, and we found five countries with signs by using an internet search. This gave a total response rate of 131/178 (74%). However, 13 countries replied to our questions but were unable to offer adequate information for the study, and alternative lines of inquiry failed to generate definitive answers. We believe the negative responses are accurate—many countries (for example, Argentina, Brunei, and Macedonia) informed us that their country did not have a road sign warning of elderly, disabled, blind, or deaf people. Of the 118 countries for which we obtained information, 35 (30%) had a road traffic sign featuring one or more of the elderly, blind, deaf, or disabled categories (table).

Table 1.

Countries that have road traffic signs warning motorists about elderly, disabled, blind, or deaf people

Country with sign	Disabled people	Elderly people	Blind people	Deaf people
Armenia	X		X	X
Australia		X
Bangladesh	X		X
Belarus	X
Belize	X
Canada		X
Cyprus	X		X	X
Denmark	X		X
Estonia	X	X	X
Finland	X
France	X
Ghana	X		X
Iceland	X
Italy	X
Latvia			X
Lebanon	X
Lithuania	X		X	X
Malaysia	X		X
Namibia	X	X
Norway	X	X
Panama	X
Russian Federation	X		X	X
San Marino	X
Seychelles	X	X	X
Singapore		X	X
Slovakia	X			X
Slovenia			X
Sweden	X		X	X
Switzerland	X
Thailand	X
Tunisia	X
Turkmenistan	X		X	X
United Kingdom	X	X	X
United States	X
Vatican City	X

All countries except the United Kingdom have separate signs to represent each group of people. The UK road sign may be used alone to represent elderly, disabled, or blind people or with the caption “blind people” or “disabled people.” The “elderly people” caption is being discontinued

Comment

In the 1960s the Worboys committee suggested that road traffic signs should be predominately symbolic, because they are clearer from a distance.¹ Only eight countries that replied had a sign representing older people (table). The Namibian sign illustrated a generic picture of a pedestrian with the words “elderly people” below (fig 2). This avoids stereotyping, but the sign may not be as quickly or easily recognisable to the speeding motorist. The Australian sign has a caption only (fig 3).

Most (24/30) signs warning of disabled people were derived from the internationally recognised pictogram of a person using a wheelchair (a seated person on a wheel; fig 4) Although many patients with disabilities do not use a wheelchair, this is an easily recognisable sign.

All seven countries that had a sign representing deaf people used the internationally accepted logo of a round yellow symbol containing smaller black discs in a triangular formation (fig 5). We feel the meaning of this sign is not widely known.

Sixteen countries had road signs warning motorists of blind people in the vicinity. A popular sign, particularly in the eastern bloc, illustrated a pair of “John Lennon style” glasses (fig 6). Although many blind people do not wear these glasses, this symbol is informative and probably unobjectionable. A white stick also symbolises blindness; the Bangladeshi sign portrayed a stick (fig 7).

Many replies suggested that secondary inquiries had been made. However, we cannot corroborate this, and our study may be limited by the accuracy of the respondents.

People should not be stigmatised on road traffic signs, but signs must be clear and easily recognisable. Perhaps an international agreement on the content and style of such road signs is needed to meet these criteria. Before new designs and standardisation are embarked on, however, research is needed to see if such signs improve the safety of these pedestrians.