Common Symbols
Here you will find a list of the main symbols which are shared by many sign languages.
Aided Symbols
Real Objects
Individuals with communication disorders may communicate by pointing to or looking at an object that represents the item they want to communicate about. For instance, if an individual would like to go outside they may point to the door. Problems may arise with this type of communication when the individual points to an object and it means something else. Therefore, it is very important that the communication partner ask a series of yes/no questions to the individual in order to determine exactly what they are saying.
Representational Symbols
There are many types of two and three-dimensional symbols that may be used to represent an actual object. Photographs, PCS, Rebus symbols, Picsyms, PIC symbols, and Blissymbols are the main types of representational symbols that will be described in the following paragraphs.
Photographs
Regular black and white or colour photographs may be used to represent actual objects, activities, locations, verbs and people.
Picture Communication Symbols (PCS)
Simple line drawings are used to represent an object.
Rebus Symbols
A representation of words or syllables by pictures of objects.
Picsyms
Picsyms are a combination of pre-drawn symbols and user-drawn symbols. The idea is to provide the user an initial symbol set and allow them to draw additional ones to expand their vocabulary.
Sigsymbols
Sigsymbols incorporate the use of pictographs, ideographs, and manual signs. When pictographs and ideographs cannot be used to represent an abstract idea, pictures of manual signs taken from sign language are used.
Pictograph Ideogram Communication Symbols
Pictograph Ideogram Communication (PIC) symbols include pictographs in addition to ideographs. They are different from the previous symbol systems discussed in that they are depicted as white symbols on a black background to increase visibility.
Blissymbols
Blissymbols consist of pictographic, ideographic, and arbitrary symbols. These symbols provide rather abstract representations of concepts and are typically understood less than the pictographic symbols mentioned previously. However, Blissymbols provide a much broader range of topics and allow the user to expand his or her vocabulary more readily.
Abstract Symbol Systems
Absract symbol systems use symbols that do not suggest their meaning. The most common abstract symbol system is Yerkish lexigrams.
Orthographic Symbols
Traditional orthography is the use of written characters to represent a specific linguistic system such as the English alphabet. The most widely known orthographic symbols are Morse Code and Braille. The following two paragraphs discuss these two systems in more detail.
Morse Code
Morse code, a method of communication, is an international symbol system that represents letters, numbers, and punctuation marks using a series of dots and dashes. Morse Code is becoming an increasingly popular input method for individuals with disabilities because it is very fast.
Braille
Braille is a tactile symbol system used by individuals with visual impairments to read and write. Combinations of six embossed dots arranged in a cell of two columns make up the Braille characters. The Braille characters represent letters, words, and parts of words. Like Morse code, Braille is used internationally, but different countries change the code of the characters to match their language.
top ^
top ^
