The Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD) Washington, D.C., and Hablamos Juntos, an organization that seeks to develop practical solutions to healthcare language barriers, are unveiling Universal Symbols in Health Care, a series of technical reports that includes a set of 56 graphic symbols and pictograms that will reportedly make healthcare facilities more navigable for patients who have limited English or reading proficiency. The program resulted from a two-year research that included a consortium of university design schools, wayfinding experts and design firms that specialize in health-care wayfinding.
The Universal Symbols program will be introduced at four partnering healthcare facilities: Providence, RI’s Women & Infants Hospital; Seattle’s International Community Health Services; Kansas City’s Children’s Mercy Hospital; and Atlanta’s Grady Health System.