On Tuesday, January 25, at 10:00 am, The ceremonial "first parking spot painting" was held to mark Kaiserman Jewish Community Center (JCC) and Perelman Jewish Day School (both at 45 Haverford Road, Wynnewood PA, 19096) adopting the new Accessible Icon to mark designated parking spaces for persons with disabilities.
The New Accessible Icon depicts independence and motion by positioning the silhouette with its body leaning forward, head up, and arms cocked back over the wheels of the chair. (The old, standard icon, feature a silhouette rigidly sitting upright in a wheelchair, creating a feeling of dependence on others to push their wheelchair to get around.)
The New Accessible Icon stencil was provided to Kaiserman Jewish Community Center and Perelman Jewish Day School by Einstein Healthcare Network's Jewish Health Resource Center and MossRehab who, as part of Einstein Healthcare Network, adopted the new icon in 2014 and successfully lobbied the City of Philadelphia to adopt the New Accessible Icon in 2019. (MossRehab makes the stencil available to businesses and organizations that wish to use it.)
"Kaiserman JCC is an institution founded with a vision of inclusion and diversity," said Alan Scher, CEO, Kaiserman JCC. "We are consistently striving to broaden our capacity to serve our entire community well and adopting this new icon to better represent persons with disabilities, exemplifies our model: Values up front."
"Making our school, Kaiserman, and our joint campus more accessible to everyone is a no-brainer," said Jody Groner, Head of School at Perelman. "Parents, grandparents and even students may need preferred parking that is clearly visible so that they feel comfortable and welcome. We are delighted to collaborate with the Kaiserman JCC, MossRehab and Einstein's Jewish Health Resource Center on this important step forward."
In adopting the New Accessible Icon, Kaiserman Jewish Community Center and Perelman Jewish Day School join many other notable institutions in the Philadelphia region (aside from the City of Philadelphia itself) that have adopted the new icon to better represent persons with disabilities, such as Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Pennsylvania Convention Center.
"Kudos to Kaiserman Jewish Community Center and Perelman Jewish Day School for adopting the Accessible Icon," said Julie Hensler-Cullen, Director of Education & Quality at MossRehab. "By doing so, these organizations demonstrate in a public, visible way their support of a more inclusive future."