Guide to Symbols:

Choosing your method of symbolising:

• Do you know what it is that you want to write?
• Who will read it?

  Just symbol readers?
  Symbol readers and non-symbol readers?
  

• In what media will your content be available?

  E.g. A leafl et? A letter? A website?
  

• Fully symbolised
• Symbol summaries
• Content highlights
• Key Symbols
  
  
• Does your choice of media have enough space for your symbolised content?

Don’t forget that symbolised text takes up more room than non-symbolised text!

 

---

 

If you are providing symbol support using
key symbols or a content highlight…

• Do your symbols illustrate the key information?
• Are your symbols as transparent as possible? (See Widgit structure)
• Does each symbol accurately represent the meaning of the concept?

(See an example of the two different symbols used to indicate different gyms in a leisure centre in Creating key symbols)

• Are your symbols consistent with each other?
• If you are creating a symbol highlight, do the symbols form a logical sequence?

If you are creating a symbol summary or fully symbolised content…

Writing your content

Making a bulleted list of the points you want to include is a good starting point.

 

• Are your sentences as short as possible?
• Is your language appropriate for your readers?
• Have you checked your content’s simplicity by saying it aloud?

If you are creating symbol summaries…

• Do your summaries cover all of the key information in your document?
• Are your summaries no more than four lines long?

Symbolising your content

• Does each symbol accurately represent the word’s meaning in the context of the sentence?

Remember you can retext symbols to help find the most appropriate image

 

• Do the symbols cover all of the main information points in the sentence?
• Have you turned off any abstract symbols unnecessary to your reader?
• Have you turned on/off any qualifier graphics relevant to your readers level?
• Are all your symbols consistent with each other?
• Does your layout reinforce the punctuation?
• Have you used no more than eight symbols per line?
• Can you clearly see the beginning and end of every sentence?

Read just the symbolised words aloud to make sure you have symbolised all the information-carrying words. Look at just the symbols without the text; do they make sense?