Starting this month, the Franklin County Board of Developmental Disabilities is rolling out a new logo.
Bold, bright hues of teal and gold show off an outline of the state, a star pinpointing our location in the Columbus area, and a shortened version of the agency’s name: Franklin County DD.
“We hope it catches on,” Superintendent/CEO Dot Yeager said. “Our full name is a mouthful, and there really hasn’t been an acronym that is both easy to say and that makes our identity clear.”
Officially and legally, the agency name remains the same. Franklin County DD is one we’ll use more casually and conversationally, with an aim toward boosting public awareness of our mission to promote inclusion and accessibility for children and adults with developmental disabilities.
Since 2009, the Franklin County DD logo has been based on a pencil-drawn montage of faces by renowned artist Martha Perske. She began creating her lifelike drawings of people with disabilities in the early 1970s to illustrate newsletters and books written by her husband, the late Robert Perske, a chaplain and a passionate advocate for the rights of people with developmental disabilities.
“I love the history of it, but younger families might not relate as much,” Gary Tonks, President of the Arc of Ohio, said of the Perske logo. “We know that a lot of disabilities are invisible, especially autism.”
Tonks knew Mr. Perske well and says the drawings, like the couple’s work, always were meant to promote acceptance and inclusion. And for many families at the forefront of the disability-rights movement, the so-called “Perske prints” resonated. “For our older generation, it’s an acceptance of who your child is and that it’s okay,” Tonks said. “The pictures are everywhere.”
It will take a while for Franklin County DD to update or replace existing signage with the new logo, which is much easier to reproduce than the highly detailed Perske drawing. Documents, business cards and online changes will happen sooner.
When Franklin County DD began using the Perske logo, Ohio had just changed state law to remove the words mental retardation from the names of county boards. Prior to that, the agency’s logo design showed the letters “FCBMRDD” between horizontal, parallel lines.
The name change was a victory for self-advocates, including many in Franklin County. “Let’s hope that attitudes continue to shift,” former Superintendent/CEO Jed Morison said at the time, so that communities “consider the person first rather than the disability.”
