Graphic design help

[soc_puppet]

Hello, everyone! I'm looking for some help offering feedback on a visual design.

Backstory: I was looking around the website of a convention I used to staff, and discovered that they were using a different graphic than I expected in the Accessibility Policy section of their website. Instead of the graphic I expected, they were using one based on the old, visually unsafe version of the Disability Pride flag from 2019; the one with the lightning bolts that triggered a lot of photo-sensitivity issues for people.

I reached out to the current Accessibility team as soon as I saw it to let them know about the problem, and the graphic design person got to work on a redesign right away; she just contacted me today to let me know that she's updated it.

The problem is, she wasn't interested in using the colors or design from the updated, visually safe Disability Pride flag, and I don't know enough to be able to say whether the current design is safe or not. The zigzag and black lines between colors are gone, but I don't know if that's enough. Is there anyone here who might be able to help me figure out if the new design is safe or not?

Thank you very much in advance!

Edit: The design has been confirmed visually unsafe, and I'll be looking into more alternatives I might be able to suggest for design elements. I wouldn't say no to more help, but I'm off to an excellent start. Thank you, everyone!

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

It's hard to say without it being shown. You said the black lines are gone but what are they replaced with? The problems with the black was that the contrast between the dark black and bright stripes of the flag.

[soc_puppet]

Shoot, I forgot to update here. A friend on Discord helped me out and confirmed that the new image is still a problem. In this case, the lines between the colors are gone, so the rainbow lines are now next to each other, and are now in a wheel/target shape rather than a zigzag, but are in the middle of a black wheel with another large black circle in the middle. There are also five gradient rainbow lines to the left of the wheelchair user. Here's a direct link to the image if you're safe to look; the colors are still just as bright as the original image, and my friend reported that the image felt like it "stabbed [her] right in the brain", so uh. Yeah, I'm thinking still not safe.

Flag's creator extensively workshopped the design

[jesse_the_k]

...with disabled people who have trigger issues re: seizures/migraine/vision.

So my response: why change something that's been extensively workshopped?

In similar situations, I've said, "Hey, would you change the font, size and color on an EXIT sign because you think it's prettier?"

Standardization is helpful, in general. It's particularly helpful for atypical bodyminds -- knowing what to look for, and where, and how high. That's why ADAAG is so specific.

The flag's creator, Ann Magill aka capri0mni discusses this
https://capricorn-0mnikorn.tumblr.com/search/disability%20pride%20flag

Documenting the back-and-forth, Magill posted to r/Disability on Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/disability/comments/uhhdbv/the_disability_pride_flag_by_ann_magill_me_has/

Re: Flag's creator extensively workshopped the design

[soc_puppet]

I made sure to link the web person to a lovely info post about the Disability Pride flag and the meanings behind the colors, etc. I'm afraid I completely forgot about the intensity/brightness of the colors being a problem, but I was also honestly expecting them to either keep using Buu-chan on Wheels for the website (which might also be a little on the too-bright side, now that I look at it again), or to switch to either Blind Buu-chan or Buu-chan Using Forearm Crutches. Part of the problem was almost certainly that I didn't remove the 2019 Accessibility Pass design from the assets I passed on to the current Accessibility head, which included the original, visually unsafe Disability Pride flag, and it seems like this person ended up using it as a design base. (Or possibly just remembered it from 2019, since they helped put the passes together.)

Anyway, this is for AnimeIowa, and the person in question... IDK, she might actually still be holding a bit of a grudge against me for leaving and possibly even getting other people to also leave in protest against the mask thing? I know that she had been planning to retire from the con after that year, but instead ended up taking on a bigger commitment to it to keep it going when a good chunk of us left over the mask thing.

That said! That is very helpful wording you've given me, and I'll definitely be digging through the Reddit thread to see if I can find or make a concise list of "Here's how to make a visually safe image, here's what to avoid, etc". Honestly, if there's even a general "these are usually safe" color palette there, I might cry.

Stabbed is the right verb

[jesse_the_k]

Don't want to make you cry, but the Reddit thread does have detailed discussions, including Pantone, RGB, and HEX values.

(I was impressed anybody remembered Pantone numbers still existed.)

Re: Stabbed is the right verb

[soc_puppet]

Tears are on hold; the only values I found in the comments were specifically for the Disability Pride flag being discussed 😞 On the plus side, I did a quick search for "flag" in r/disability and found this gem of a comment. It doesn't have quite as much as I'd like about picking colors for image design, but it's much better than nothing!

Re: Flag's creator extensively workshopped the design

[sasha_feather]

This is very random but i found another disability flag (I don't love it),
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability_flag

Re: Flag's creator extensively workshopped the design

[soc_puppet]

Ann Magill, creator/director of the five-stripe Disability Pride flag, has some thoughts of her own on that one over here. Long story short, she appreciates the existence of the tri-color Paralympics-inspired flag, but still feels like a more "punk" flag is good to compliment it.