Blissymbolics

I have been involved in Blissymbolics since 1986 as a teacher, trainer and a researcher.

Blissymbolics is a semantic based graphic language used world-wide by non-speaking individuals. It is a grammatical written language similar to written Chinese.

Graphic representational systems (GRSes) provide access to basic communication for people with severe communication disorders. Picture-based GRSes can be used to represent concrete objects, but fail when more abstract concepts are required. Thus although a vocabulary of pictures provides access to concrete objects it cannot be used as a representation of language in the true sense of the word. Blissymbolics has the advantage over picture-based GRSes in that it provides a grammatical written language without being a phonetic representation of a spoken language. This is an advantage for individuals who may be pre-literate (or who have difficulty learning to read and write), but require a language with full expressive capacity.

Dundee University's School of Computing hosted an international Think Tank in July 2007. This meeting brought together leaders in the field of Blissymbolics to discuss the past, present ant future of Blissymbolics within the field of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). The meeting developed a new vision for Blissymbolics International.

Past research projects have included:

• The development of a Blissymbol wordprocessor
• The development of a Bliss to English translator
• The development of a Web-based Blissymbolic Dictionary