Dear Colleagues
The Makaton system might be of interest in this debate - see http://www.makaton.org/
We used some of the symbols on the labels and background material for an art exhibition called 'See Me!', which I co-curated at the London Science Museum in 1996. Whilst they are not specifically 'access symbols', they did appear to operate as a 'Welcome' sign as well as having a practical use for the children and adults who use them. Ironically, other museum visitors also said that they found them very helpful because they are so visual. For those of us who worked with the exhibition, they provided an easy way for us to engage museum visitors in discussion about people with learning difficulties because everyone was so curious about the symbols.
I understand the colleague earlier who felt that access symbols for people with learning difficulties or mental health impairments would be undesirable. However, they could also be a powerful way of raising awareness.
It would be a tragedy if people with learning difficulties (not dyslexia) were to be stigmatised or discriminated against by those of us working in the higher education field, as sometimes seems to me to be the case.
Yours.
Anne Tynan
Director, DIVERSE
The UK Veterinary Medicine Disability Project
Website http://www.ltsn-01.ac.uk/diverse/index_html/
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Am 16.03.2005 um 12:55 schrieb annette french:
> Please could anyone tell me if there is a recognised access symbol for
> Adults with Learning Difficulties and those living with Mental Health
> Impairments. The only examples of access signs that I can find cover
> physical and sensory impairments only.
>
> Many thanks
> Annette French
>
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