Extra Symbols: Provide symbols or pictures at the beginning of short sentences and phrases to aid understanding for all content where people who use augmentative/alternative communication systems, have expressive and receptive written language difficulties, or have intellectual disabilities are in the intended audience.
AA
It is a bit controversial to say that people with Aphasia, etc. are not in an intended audience. However, when we remove the intended audience clause this seems to become a AAA conformance criterion, which is more problematic. We are open to other alternatives.
Principle 3, 3.1 Make text content readable and understandable.
Symbols are added at the beginning of short sentences and phrases to aid understanding. However, as some people have difficulty remembering symbols, use text with the symbol.
We are also drafting semantics that will add symbols that are easy to use by the individual user.
See widget and easy read for some good examples.
Examples of content and features where the intended audience includes people who may require the use of symbols, use augmentative/alternative communication systems, have expressive and receptive written language difficulties or have intellectual disabilities, include:
It should be noted that to conform to the principle of personalization (SC 6), symbols and graphics must be:
If these conditions are not explicit in the personalization requirement, it should be added to this success criteria.
Note that graphics should be clear and make it easy to identify what is going on. This topic and why the use of symbols must support personalization and interoperability is discussed at Symbols for Non-Verbal.
The benefit of this Success Criterion to people who find reading or language difficult cannot be underestimated. This population may include people who have developmental delays or acquired or progressive brain damage. For example, a person with severe aphasia, where they have the intellectual ability to understand concepts, but cannot express those concepts, read text or write the word needed in a search field, is dependent on the use of symbols to browse pages for information.
The user needs are more fully described in the issue paper Symbols for Non-Verbal and User needs Table.
Resources are for information purposes only, no endorsement implied.
This Success Criterion can be tested manually by inspection.