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Yellow sunflowers on a green lanyard, signalling a non-visible disability.
Also known as: Sunflower lanyard, Hidden disability sunflower, Invisible disability lanyard, Green sunflower lanyard
A green lanyard patterned with yellow sunflowers signals that the wearer has a disability that is not apparent and may need more time, help or patience. It is worn by choice and asks for nothing specific — which is both its strength and the source of most confusion about it.
Signals that the wearer has a non-visible disability and may need additional time, assistance or understanding.
Contexts: Public information
Is worn voluntarily and requires no proof, registration or diagnosis; it is a request for awareness rather than a claim to any specific entitlement.
Contexts: Public information
Does not say what the wearer needs, which is deliberate — staff trained in the scheme are expected to ask rather than assume.
Contexts: Public information
Began at a British airport in 2016 and spread to transport operators, retailers and health services in a number of countries.
2016 onward · Contexts: Public information
Operates as a private scheme rather than a standard: recognition depends on whether an individual venue has adopted it and trained its staff, so the same lanyard may be understood in one place and not in the next.
An important practical limit. The symbol confers no legal status, and Symbolwise takes no position on the scheme itself.
Contexts: Public information
Began at London Gatwick Airport in 2016 as a way for a passenger with a non-visible disability to signal a need for a little more time or help without having to explain it at every desk. It spread from airports to supermarkets, railway operators, hospitals and stadiums, and to schemes in other countries.
United Kingdom, then internationally · 2016 onward · Contexts: Public information
Confers no entitlement and requires no proof. Wearing it is voluntary and unverified: it asks staff to be patient, not to grant priority, and a scheme that treated it as a queue pass would be defeating the point. Equally, not wearing one says nothing at all about whether somebody is disabled.
Contexts: Public information
Related forms that are not treated as separate canonical symbols — see our variant rules.
Lanyard
The original and commonest form: green cord printed with yellow sunflower heads, worn round the neck.
Card and pin badge
The same sunflower on a wallet card or a small badge, for people who do not want to wear a lanyard or cannot.
A dark green lanyard or card printed with a repeating pattern of yellow sunflowers, each a ring of pointed petals around a dark centre.