The Scottish Government

Colour Photographs

Any - digital or 'ordinary'

Colour, fully pictorial, can be 100% specific and fully personalized so meaningful to user

Can often be too 'busy', poorly composed and poorly lit, so may be visually difficult to process, for some users

Very widely used, especially as digital cameras become more widely available. Need to remember to take single item against contrasting background to

Ordinary photos need to be scanned in. Can be imported into any software that handles graphics, usually in .jpg format. Might want to crop / edit etc. using a graphics viewer / editing software eg. IrfanView (free from internet) or Paint (free with Windows)

www.irfanview.com

Coloured pictures

Eg. cut from magazines, mail-order catalogues etc. Use postcards, cuttings from tourist leaflets etc. for outings and trips

Often better quality and clearer than self-taken photos (but not personalized)

Nice way to involve the service-user in choosing their own pictures, can be cut out, stuck into diaries, albums, Talking Photo Albums etc.

Not useful digitally - would need to be 'scanned in' then treated as any graphics file (see above)

Images from the internet

Like photos in general, can be more specific than symbols Photos not always good quality

Useful for being very specific, using images from TV, cinema etc. Watch out for copyright issues - do not reproduce or sell, though may be OK to use with individual service-users

Import into any software that handles graphics,

www.images.google.com

or see CALL handout 'Pictures and Clip Art…" for other web sites

Clip Art

Eg. Flash! Pro 2 (photos)

Picture This...Pro (photos)

Let's Sign and Write (graphics for signing)

Like any photos (see above) will be highly specific (although unlike your own photos, NOT personalized). Otherwise, can tend to be a bit 'cartoony' so not always appropriate or meaningful (see below)

Handy to have a collection available, but not standardised, so cannot transfer from / to different situations. Exception is ORT, Wellington Square (graphics to go with reading schemes widely used in schools))

Clip Art is widely available free on the Internet and commercially (and in Microsoft Word, if installed) Commercial sets generally not useful unless they have a searchable index and visual preview facility. Specialised for use with Special Needs recommended, (cf 'Examples' box, left)

Search in Google for 'free clip art'.

www.inclusive.co.uk

http://office.microsoft.com/clipart /

For ORT - www.cricksoft.com/uk/products/graphics&symbols /

Cartoons

May be considered less 'childish' than some other graphics, so may seem appealing to staff, but very often difficult to process, not meaningful to service-user or appropriate to situation.

As above, not widely used, not standardised, so cannot transfer from / to different situations

From Clip art. Internet image search etc.

Hand-drawn pictures

Black and white line drawings, usually.

Easy, quick and always available! Not always good quality but should be recognizable and 'do the job' temporarily at least, if closely linked to context and done in front of service-user in 'real time'.

Probably not as widely used as they should be - can be highly specific to situation and powerful tool. However, not standardized, not easily replicable

If you wanted to make life really complicated, could be scanned in and saved / imported as graphics, drawn on tablet computer screen and saved etc…..nah….!

Ispeek Visual Communication

1,000 coloured images, 1,000 more promised for September 2005, organized into categories. Categories and images geared primarily to ASD children, eg. facial expressions / emotions, sounds that cause sensitivity / distress. Images made up into Schedules also available, eg. Making Snacks and Drinks, Personal Care.

Designed by a parent / educator and designed for use by children with autistic spectrum disorder. Don't know anyone using it - yet - looks promising. Company also sells low-tech communication materials eg. charts, schedule strips, and keyring communicators etc.

Image set comes on a CD £25 each ( CD 2 not out yet) images (metafiles or .jpgs) can be imported like any clip art or other graphics into whatever software you want to use.

www.ispeek.co.uk /

Pics for PECS

1,200 brightly coloured images in .jpg format

Designed mainly for children / ASD

Some people think if you are doing PECS you have to use these images - not true - you can use any images or symbols. Pyramid also sells range of other materials, low tech picture sets, help cards, visual schedules etc.

Pics for PECS 2005 Image set comes on a CD £30, again can be imported and used in any software.

www.pecs.org.uk /

CHANGE Picture Bank

CHANGE Health Picture Bank

500 images on each CD, all black and white line drawing style. Some may be hard to process (see 'video camera', left)

Picture sets are designed by group working with adults with complex disabilities especially deaf and blind with learning difficulties.

Don't know anyone using it - yet. Images are not childish; all people shown are adult, some elderly. Possible lack of consistency of style across the set, some are 'cartoony', some 'drawing-y', some simpler / more detailed than others.

CD £120 (different prices for different purchasers - more for big organizations, less for families)

www.changepeople.co.uk /

Bonnington Symbol System

Approximately 600 Black and White symbols (with some red eg. for medical cross, and crossing out eg. No smoking). Style of symbols is similar in some cases to PCS, Makaton, Rebus, (see below), and in other cases to 'international airport signs' style in line with British Standard Symbols (cf Sign Design guide, JMU Access Partnership, RNIB)

Widely used in Edinburgh and Lothians (?) but not much elsewhere? Symbols are not childish. Developed particularly for use by adults with learning difficulties, initially for use in an adult resource centre setting, now more and more for signage and 'inclusive communication' in the community. Vocabulary particularly geared to just 'labelling'

Sold on CD in .wmf format £40 but charges may be waived or negotiable for Edinburgh Social Work or associated local services.

www.modemoperandi.co.uk/symbols /

Minspeak Symbols (or Minsymbols)

Coloured multi-meaning icons, only used in combination with specific technology, no low tech version

Used by Minspeak device users only

ONLY available in conjunction with dedicated Minspeak VOCAS, eg. SpringBoard, Vanguard, Vantage, Pathfinder

www.pri.co.uk

DynaSyms

Coloured multi-meaning icons, only used in combination with specific technology, (low tech version (PicSyms) used to exist but not used in UK)

Used by some DynaVox ( DV4, MT4, Mighty Mo, MiniMo) users (but not all - users have the option of PCS symbols instead).

Users can choose to have DynaSyms or PCS pre-loaded in DynaVox VOCA products.

www.dynavox.co.uk

Product Logos

McDonalds, Marks and Spencer, Coca Cola etc.

These are not 'transparent' or 'guessable' symbols - you either know what they represent or you don't

Some of these are very familiar to everybody; others may have particular significance for a specific individual. If used, must be tailored to individual's experience and interests - these are not

Materials from the shops themselves, should usually be able to take from Internet

Picture Communic-ation Symbols

( PCS)

(often referred to as 'BoardMaker Symbols')

Symbols are basically quite pictorial. Basic Vocabulary of 3000+ and now several 'Addendum' packs with about 2000 more symbols bring vocab up to 5,000+ (also specialized vocabularies, eg. Animations and Communicating about Sexuality) Available in both colour and black and white, and 'transparent' so can go in outline on a colour-coded background.

Originally American which sometimes shows and may annoy occasionally.

Widely used across Scotland in schools - the most commonly used symbols in education and as general 'visual environment'. Advantage of this is that staff tend to be familiar and supported with this system. Note that if children leave school and move on to adult placements, they need to have continuity of their PCS symbol system - NOT to be taken off and stuck on to a new / different system

BoardMaker

BoardMaker Plus,

Schedule It! Sequence It

For making materials (special bitmap format)

Plus lots of 'sets' of ready-made symbol topic boards & games etc. eg. Print N'Play, Print N'Eat (Menus), Print N'Learn units

Speaking Dynamically Pro

Alternatively/also can get CD of symbols only (£80), import into software of your choice (necessary for Clicker, as BoardMaker symbols will not insert into Clicker 4)

Clicker and Speaking Dynamically Pro are switch accessible so can be used directly by service users.

www.mayerjohnson.com

in UK, available

www.donjohnston.co.uk

and others (not all products) eg. www.inclusive.co.uk

www.cricksoft.co.uk

& other companies

Also resources downloadable from www.callcentrescotland.org.uk

Widgit Rebus symbols

Colour Widgit Symbols

The whole Widgit Rebus symbol system has been revised recently to ensure consistency and add new vocabulary and some basic grammar markers. Now around 7,000+ symbols available Symbols always used to be black and white only, but now available in colour, in conjunction with new software Communicate in Print (even to the extent of 5 different skin choice colours, for people symbols!).

Widely used across England and Wales, becoming more common in Scotland. Designed primarily to help develop literacy and 'writing' (rather than as a communication aid) and to make information accessible. Used by all ages but perhaps more by slightly older students and adults. A new 'Adult Dynamic Vocabulary' ( ADV) in Widgit Rebus now available for use in The Grid software

Writing with Symbols 2000

Communicate in Print

Communicate Webwide

Communicate by Choice

PC only

Writing with Symbols 2000 ( WWS) comes with all Widgit Rebus symbols and all PCS symbols already installed. Exciting new software development opens up opportunities for symbol communication over email and internet. Widgit Rebus symbols in .emf format have not in the past been easy to import into other software (though this may be changing (new Clicker 5 may deal with them)

WWS and The Grid are switch-accessible so can be used directly by service users.

www.widgit.co.uk

www.symbolworld.co.uk

www.sensorysoftware.com/resources/gridsets/adv.html

Symbols for Makaton

Symbols designed to accompany the Makaton manual signing programme. Thick black & white line drawings, originally based on Rebus, now with many adaptations and additions, to match vocabulary requirements of National Curriculum etc.

Just because you use Makaton signing it does not mean you must use Makaton symbols - you can combine Makaton signing with other symbol systems. Makaton symbols tend to have been overtaken by Widgit Rebus and PCS these days?

Database of Signs and Symbols

Various CDs: Core Vocabulary, National Curriculum 1, Animals, Transport & Vehicles £65 each. Can be used with your software of choice and / or installed as a 'symbol library' in Widgit's Writing with Symbols 2000 and/ or Clicker 4

www.makaton.org/

www.widgit.co.uk

Bliss Symbols

book

library

Huge vocabulary, (c4000) including quite sophisticated and abstract meanings, plus potential to use strategies and 'combine' symbols to make new meanings. Black and white only (may use colour-coded background). Many symbols are not transparent or guessable though there are simple rules that help you decode symbol shapes

Can be easily hand-drawn, which is convenient

Used by some adults but not many children these days. Pity, as it's a powerful system that can give excellent communication to more cognitively able users Felt to be a bit too abstract for some users, and might be harder for staff especially in mainstream schools and community settings, who might need special training. Hopefully will come back into fashion one day soon, perhaps when software situation improves.

Mind Express

Symbols for Windows (SfW) suite

SfW Communicator & Paper Chart Maker

Both come with Bliss pre-loaded but are designed primarily as communication aids not just for making materials.

Can cut and paste from BlissWord Dictionary.

Bliss libraries hopefully soon to be available for both BoardMaker and Writing with Symbols 2000 - this will revolutionize the situation and make Bliss more usable

www.techcess.co.uk/techcess.html

www.possum.co.uk/symbol_for_windows

www.blisswords.co.uk /

www.blissymbolics.org /