Widgit symbols

Also called Widgit, Widgit Literacy Symbols, Rebus symbols, WLS

The schematic symbol set most common in UK schools, easy-read documents and symbol-supported text, and how its licence works.

What it is

Widgit symbols are a set of simple, schematic drawings developed in the UK from the 1980s by Widgit, a company in Warwickshire. They began as the Rebus symbols used in early literacy work and grew into a set of many thousands, drawn to a strict house style: plain line drawings, minimal detail, colour used to carry meaning rather than to decorate, and a consistent grammar of small marks that show tense, plurals and negatives.

That last part is what distinguishes them. A Widgit symbol for walked is the walk symbol with a small backward arrow. A plural has a double mark. A negative has a red line through it. The set was designed to sit above written words as symbol-supported text, so it carries more grammar than a set designed for pressing on a device.

Widgit is a licensed product. The symbols come with the company's software, InPrint for making printed resources and SymWriter for writing with symbols, and with a subscription to its online tools. Schools and councils typically hold a site licence, and that is why so many UK timetables, care home menus and easy read leaflets look the way they do.

Who it can help

Children in special and mainstream schools, where Widgit has been the default UK set for a generation; adults with a learning disability reading easy-read documents; and anyone who needs the words on a page made visible. It is the set most likely to be on the wall of a UK classroom and in the resources a SENCO sends home.

Its plainness suits people who are distracted by detail, and its grammar marks suit reading. It is less often the vocabulary inside a speech-generating device, where PCS and SymbolStix dominate, although Smartbox's Grid software includes Widgit as an option and a UK school-leaver with a Grid device may well be using it.

It is not free, and a family whose child has learned Widgit at school can find that the symbols do not follow them home without a licence; the company sells home licences, and the free sets in this library are the alternative.

How it works

The symbols follow a written schema. Buildings are a square with a roof; people are a circle head and a simple body; abstract words are built from a small vocabulary of shapes such as arrows and brackets that combine. Once a reader knows the schema they can read a symbol they have never seen, which is the design goal.

The company's software attaches symbols to words as you type, choosing the right symbol for the sense where it can, and lets the writer pick the meaning where it cannot. The output is symbol-supported text, a symbol above each word, or a printed board or book.

Licences are per user or per site and cover printing and displaying within the licensed setting. Putting Widgit symbols on a public website or in a published document needs the appropriate licence, and the company is clear about this.

Getting started

Ask the school whether it holds a Widgit licence and whether it can send resources home for your child, which most site licences allow. Ask for the core word board and the timetable symbols in particular, so home and school match.

If you want to make your own, Widgit sells online subscriptions to families and small services; before paying, check whether the free ARASAAC or the open symbol sets would do the job, because for a home board they often will.

If you are producing easy-read or symbol-supported documents for a service, budget for the licence and ask the people who will read the documents which set they know, rather than assuming.

Where to get help

Widgit for the symbols, software and licensing. Communication Matters for independent advice on symbol sets. CALL Scotland publishes free boards and comparisons of symbol sets. For easy-read production, CHANGE is the specialist. Your speech and language therapist chooses a set with you, via referring to speech and language therapy.