Symbol Sets

Bonnington Symbols – www.tomorraccessibility.co.uk/bss.htm

The Bonnington symbols are designed by Tom Orr and are free to use.  These symbols are black and white and are useful for meetings, agendas and minutes.

Photosymbols – www.photosymbols.com

Photosymbols are a popular set of pictures for making Easy Read information for people with a learning disability. Easy Read is an accessible format that makes written information easier to understand because it uses simple, jargon-free language, shorter sentences and supporting images.

Tobi Dynavox PCS symbols – us.tobiidynavox.com/products/picture-communication-symbols-pcs

The Picture Communication Symbols (PCS) system originated in the United States and designed to create professional looking communication aids both quickly and inexpensively. PCS symbols are divided into sections: social, people, verbs, descriptive, nouns, and a large miscellaneous section with some food and leisure.  These symbols are used extensively in schools in Scotland. The Boardmaker software allows you to print out the symbols.

Widgit – www.widgit.com

Widgit symbols are based on Rebus symbols. Developed from the American Peabody Reading Scheme and anglicised by Judy van Oosterom, most Rebus symbols are stylised pictures representing objects, actions and attributes which are immediately recognisable. The library contains plurals of certain symbols and qualifiers to show the future tense. Recently symbols have been added for individuals taking part in the Special Olympics and to complement the signing system Singalong. The total number of symbols is increasing each year as requests for new symbols are made, and to date there are between 4000 and 5000 symbols available. They can be reproduced in colour within the software.

SymbobolStix www.n2y.com/

SymbolStix is the newest symbol set from the US, now versioned for UK English. Originally designed and developed by News-2-You, Inc for use in its internet newspaper and online curriculum, SymbolStix depicts activities and people as lively, vibrant stick figures, drawn with a distinctive flair to create “stick figures with an attitude”. The set consists of approximately 11,000 symbols.