special characters in abbreviations

I have the following abbreviation
iab julianheader <esc>:r!~/.bin/datevim.sh<cr>

It worked fine till I swapped the caps lock and the escape key at the os level. FYI I am using Ubuntu 16.04
Now the abbreviation no longer works. I am assuming <esc> in Vim now points to capslock
From my understanding the capslock key can not be referenced in vim, so I tried using just the keycode but if I replace <esc> with the keycode for the capslock key I just get the literal string.

I have also added an additional escape key at the os level to <S-F12> and tried using that in Vim but no go.

I am new enough in Vim I am not sure where to find the answer.

Thanks

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