Accessibility: an AFNOR guide to harmonize pictogram design
The voluntary standard NF P96-105 provides a framework for designing and using pictograms that speak to all audiences, whether disabled or not, when it comes to information and orientation in buildings.
Set a framework without freezing creative possibilities. This is the challenge taken up by AFNOR’s “accessibility and quality of use in the built environment” standardization committee(the committee brings together representatives of user associations, design practitioners, construction professionals and government bodies), which today published the voluntary standard NF P96-105. This twenty-page document (excluding appendices) will be useful to project managers and managers of public-access establishments (ERP) in designing, ordering and using pictograms that respect the principles of accessibility for all. It is the result of a project launched in 2014 at the request of the Délégation ministérielle à l’accessibilité and user associations, and led by Unapei (Unapei is the leading French federation of associations representing and defending the interests of disabled people and their families).
Limit the risk of misunderstanding
Who hasn’t been baffled by fanciful pictograms that aren’t immediately understandable, sometimes differing for the same information, with graphics that make it hard to understand, or containing too much information? Far from imposing standardization, even if the use of standardized pictograms is recommended, the voluntary standard NF P96-105 reconciles the desire of building owners to express their own identity with respect for the principles of universal design.
Among the recommendations concerning the design of the “sign”, the voluntary standard specifies that pictograms must be memorable and easy to describe, with no perspective effects that could hinder comprehension: 2D is therefore preferred to 3D. Objective: to deliver a simple message, without a rebus effect or limiting signs that are difficult to assimilate. Numerous tips are provided to help you position pictograms correctly, depending on the context and the information given, as well as their illumination (artificial or natural) or contrast (for example, outdoors, according to the changing colors of tree leaves or the presence of snow).
Sound dubbing of pictograms
The commission members specified a number of conditions concerning the sound dubbing of the pictogram, a feature that is essential for the visually impaired but also useful for anyone who has difficulty finding their way around (the elderly or the intellectually handicapped, for example). The voluntary standard encourages the reasoned use of these technologies according to the type of ERP and the context, and specifies the expectations of the law according to use.
It also sets out recommendations for designing audio messages, and encourages the use of simple words, such as “toilettes” instead of “sanitaires”. Key words are also preferred to long messages: a non-exhaustive list of examples is given. Also available in the appendices are examples of pictograms to be affixed during a typical trip in a typical building. Finally, there are concrete explanations of the handicaps or comprehension difficulties faced by people with reading difficulties, or with hearing, visual, intellectual or psychological impairments.
