Widgit Symbols

The text on the website is fully-symbolised using the Widgit Symbols Set – a ‘symbol language’ consisting of a set of carefully and simply drawn symbols, each of which illustrates a single concept.

The ever-expanding Widgit Symbol Set contains more than 10,000 symbols, which cover an English vocabulary of over 40,000 words.

Widgit’s simply drawn, colourful symbols each illustrate a single concept, in a clear and concise way, and cover a range of topics (including many curricular areas) wide enough to make them suitable for symbol users of all ages and abilities.

Widgit Symbols are used all over the world, supporting 17 languages, increasing the accessibility of written text, and giving readers of all literacy levels greater access to information. As the Widgit Symbol Set is designed specifically for written information, Widgit Symbol users can develop a real independence in their reading and writing.

Schematic structure

The Widgit Symbols follow a schematic structure, meaning that there are ‘rules’ for the way in which they are formed. These ‘rules’ for symbol composition quickly become recognisable to new users, giving a level of independence to users even while they are learning.

A good example of this structure is the set of conventions followed by the symbols for buildings. A symbol that represents a building will feature a standard outline of a building, which contains another symbol that gives information about the type of building it is. The scale of the building is indicated by the shape of the roof: a ﬂat roof represents a large building, such as a hospital, and a pointed roof represents a smaller building, such as a clinic.

The inclusion of other elements within a ‘building’ symbol can change the nature of the symbol again. For example, adding a cash register to the ‘book in a building’ symbol would indicate a bookshop rather than a library.

Once these rules have been learned, it is easy to recognise the concept being depicted by the symbol, even when the symbol features three or more elements.

Levels of symbols

There are three levels of complexity within the Widgit Symbol Set: Transparent, Learned and Abstract.

Transparent

Transparent’ symbols are very obvious depictions of the concepts that they illustrate. The reader does not need to rely upon the symbol’s context (i.e. to understand any of the words in the sentence, or pay attention to the other symbols) to be able to understand what the symbol means. As long as the reader is familiar with the concept that is being illustrated, they should be able to interpret the symbol.

Learned

The second level of symbol, ‘learned’, is more conceptual and therefore needs to be learned. The consistent nature of ‘learned’ symbols means that the concepts they represent become obvious when they are shown together.
In this example, the concepts of the words are illustrated by the varying relationship between the red ball and the box. If the ‘in’ symbol was seen without the word or the other symbols to provide context, it could be difficult to understand. However, having seen the symbols for related concepts, the reader is able to make an educated guess at the meaning, even without being able to understand the words.

Abstract

At the third and highest level are the ‘abstract’ symbols. Abstracts are symbols that have no obvious meaning when viewed on their own, and typically represent determiners (e.g. 'a', 'an', 'the') or adpositions (e.g. 'of', 'to', 'with', 'ago').
While their meaning can often be inferred by the context in which they are used, abstracts may actually be a distraction to some readers. In fact, not using abstract symbols to symbolise, for example, a determiner in a sentence, can actually help the meaning of the sentence to become more obvious.

Usually, only the main information-carrying words in a sentence are symbolised, as the purpose of symbolising is to communicate the idea, rather than to teach literacy.

More Information

More information on symbols and how to use them can be found in Widgit's Guide to Symbols.pdf

There is more information on symbols, and their use, on the Widgit website www.widgit.com

Evidence of use in mainstream schools:

You may also like to read about the Symbols Inclusion Project – the collaboration between Widgit and Warwickshire Integrated Disability Service on the use of symbols to support inclusion and curriculum access. This aims to create genuinely inclusive learning environments for all children and young people: www.symbolsinclusionproject.org

Go to Askability.org.uk