The Rhetoric Of The Easy Read Image

A lion? No, a giraffe. No a lion. No definitely a giraffe or two. Yes two giraffes. Perfect. This kind of light-hearted and instantaneous verbal debate is a standard pastime for me as I decode the meanings of images and work in partnership with learning disabled people on how to use them to make information more useful and accessible to them. One of my tasks at New Directions is to create 'Easy Read' documents and the challenge of using appropriate pictures and photographs in a clear and functional fashion to simplify linguistic concepts is one that I relish. As we all know, knowledge is power and the ability to understand information is key to choices, control, decision making and being treated equally.

As I have developed my understanding of people with learning disabilities I have learned more about the way they visually interpret the world around them through research and feedback. I also talk to our managers on projects that highlight the need to delve deeper to translate the visual language that we readily rely upon. The double giraffe image in question provides a sticker representing a zoo trip, one of dozens on an A1 activities calendar. I enjoyed this project immensely and learned more about the symbolism recognised by the people we support from the manager who had requested my graphic design skills to create this simple picture board.

For over 20 years there has been a commitment to provide disabled people with accessible information. Government law stipulates the requirements expected of public sector organisations and as a charity supporting learning disabled people we adhere to these specifications. Easy read documents often use supportive or dominant images that make information easier to understand even to a non-reader. This accessible information is vital to people with learning disabilities as they are also written in shorter sentences, with simple punctuation, in plain English with a larger, clearer font of at least 12pt. I use a Century Gothic font at 14pt for our newsletter which has a letter ‘a’ that is rounded and easier to read. However easy read is more than just making text bigger and adding a few photos, there are concepts that need careful consideration which may require bullet points, fact or story boxes, colour definition, lots of space and more than one defining image. The use of photographs as signs or "signifiers" is something that I have always found intriguing. For me it is important not to patronise learning disabled people by oversimplifying a document but to maintain the key issues and understand the visual language of the people we support or their "lexicon" as it is called.

‘Signifiers’ and ‘lexicons’ from the study of ‘Semiotics’ hark back to a time when I was more fluent in the use of images for communication in books like "The Rhetoric of The Image" by Roland Barthes 1964. During my university years I demystified images and their objects to their very essence in an almost Thomas Aquinas fashion.

For example in this comical pondering of the essence of a ‘chair’ or its “chair-ness” as it could be called. I wondered if understanding what makes a chair a 'chair' enabled a better understanding of its meaning. Is it its seating potential? Does it need both arms and a back or are they mutually exclusive? Does it have 4 legs? One leg? No legs? Does it need to touch the floor even? What makes a kneeling chair a chair? When does a chair lose its ‘chair-ness’ completely and become a stool? How wide does a garden chair get before it becomes a bench? Or are all stools infact chairs?...

The giraffes in question speak volumes to the people we support about their day trips to zoos and safari parks. When I judged the entries for the New Directions’ photograph competition in 2011 for the people we support the winner had taken snaps of giraffes. Visits to zoos and safari parks by the people we support are littered with encounters with giraffes. Feedback cemented the 'signifier' and the giraffe's destiny with our charity was born. You may disagree, but a lion has several connotations that blur my desired recognition of a trip to the zoo. Lions represent 'pride' 'astrology' 'strength' 'courage' 'fearlessness' 'bravery' and 'royalty’. Giraffes just say "I'm 'taking the big picture in a graceful fashion" which is a bit like a trip to the zoo, so there is less to confuse people, unless you count giraffe bread! Obviously I am using this example to emphasize a simplified point rather than debate ‘giraffe semantics’ or ‘giraffe-ness’, if that is even a subject.

In short the use of photographs and illustrations is essential to many people with learning disabilities. I think that philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce’s statement in his sign theory sums it up perfectly. He said a sign or ‘signifier’ is “something that stands to somebody for something in respect or capacity.” It is this respect and capacity of the people with learning disabilities who we support at New Directions that I have been learning over the years, as I find a catalogue of consistent images that enables our charity to communicate more efficiently, as well as informing and empowering the people who we support.