CAN DISABILITY BE PORTRAYED IN A SYMBOL? CONTESTED CONCEPTIONS IN ACCESSIBILITY AND INCLUSION POLICIES IN BRAZIL

Abstract

This article analyzes the disputes surrounding the conceptions of disability present in inclusion policies in Brazil, from 1985 to 2026, taking the regulations concerning the accessibility symbol as the guiding axis of the investigation. This is a qualitative and documentary study that examines historical and recent legal frameworks, considering the terminologies, representations, and modes of constitution of the person with a disability in the analyzed documents. Public policies are understood not as reflections of a given reality, but as materialities produced under specific historical conditions. The results indicate that the transition from the International Symbol of Access to the UN International Symbol of Accessibility does not constitute a linear evolutionary process. Law No. 15,459/2026 highlights this non-linearity by articulating the maintenance of the wheelchair symbol, resulting from a presidential veto of the new UN logo, with the alteration of its nomenclature and the requirement of proof of effective accessibility for its use. The analysis demonstrates the persistence of disputes between medical-biological and individualizing conceptions and perspectives linked to the social model, human rights, and the emancipation of people with disabilities. It is concluded that the legal system constitutes an important materiality, in which different conceptions of body, disability, accessibility, and inclusion converge, oppose each other, and are disputed. The incorporation of new visual identities does not, in itself, eliminate the ableist logics that permeate social structures, and the debate remains a mechanism for contesting visibility, recognition, and the transformation of social practices.