How can airports have more inclusive signage?

On November 18th of this year, the United States House of Representatives passed HR7554, the TRANSLATE Act (Transportation Security Administration Reaching Across Nationalities, Societies, and Languages to Advance Traveler Education Act) which directs the TSA to make signage more accessible to people who aren’t fluent in English, as well as those with hearing and visual impairments. “You shouldn’t have to worry about missing a plane in the U.S. just because you don’t speak English,” said Nevada representative Dina Titus, sponsor of the bill. While the bill doesn’t give any instructions as to how to make signage, videos, and other materials more inclusive of non-English speakers and those with disabilities, it gives the TSA about a year to create and implement a strategy by looking at the needs of the communities surrounding airports and the needs of the travellers passing through them.

There are a few ways the TSA can go about this: creating multilingual signage, making airports compatible with assistive technology, or being less reliant on spoken and written language with alingual signage.

Multilingual Signage

One example the TSA can pull from is Frankfurt Airport, Europe’s second-largest travel hub. All signage in the airport is in German and English to accommodate both locals and travellers. Multilingual signage can be found all over the world. In tourist hubs like Dubai, signage is written in both English and Arabic throughout the entire city. Cultural districts also feature multilingual signage. Tarpon Springs, Florida features street signs in both English and Greek. While Haymarket, New South Wales officially has English signage, many of its commercial signage is only in Chinese.

French Retailer Go Sport posted a multilingual sign on the walkway to Dubai Mall. The single bolded word is eye-catching to both English and Arabic readers. Photo provided by InclusiCheck

Instead of translating, both the English and Arabic text on the sign say the English name of the store: “Night to Night” and
“Nayt tu Nayt”. Photo provided by InclusiCheck

These are examples of bilingual signage because the majority of people interacting with them will have functional fluency in at least one of the two languages. While there’s no federally-recognized “official language” for the United States, English and Spanish are spoken by the majority of Americans with a large gap between them and Chinese languages, French, and Tagalog. Creating bilingual signage may be adequate for the TRANSLATE Act, based on the TSA’s upcoming research, but it certainly won’t accommodate everyone living in and travelling to the United States. It also won’t do much to assist with hearing or visual impairments.

Assistive Technology

In 2015, Frankfurt Airport introduced a sign translator to their mobile app. Users can take a picture of the German or English signs to translate them into Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian or Spanish. Google Translate is constantly updating with similar features. To date, the Google Translate app can overlay translations on your phone’s camera, can translate handwriting, and even act as a vocal interpreter with Google’s Pixel Buds. This kind of technology can easily be adapted for a more tech-savvy traveller. 

Many people already use their mobile phones for accessibility. People can use the camera on their phones to zoom in on faraway signage, and many apps can amplify or even transliterate speech for those with hearing impairments. Having easy to read signs, and clear audio in videos can help with these live translations.

Image from Google

Alingual Signage

Airports around the world have adopted a comprehensive vocabulary of pictograms to accompany their signage from simple symbols like “arrivals” and “departures” to more complicated ones such as “pick up your duty-free items here before boarding your flight”. Using pictures to convey your message can be much more effective than plastering a sign with multiple translations; it can look a lot less cluttered too. While pictograms have become ubiquitous in almost every airport around the world, they are still subject to cultural interpretation. For example, restroom symbols are universal, but the wheelchair accessible restroom is indicated with WC. While the term “WC” is commonly used in Europe, an American traveller may not immediately understand the sign.

A Combined Approach

As mentioned above, Frankfurt Airport uses all three of these methods: their bilingual signage can be further translated with their app and they were one of the first airports to use iconography on every sign. But while this legislation affects airports across the United States, accessible language is something all businesses should keep in mind, especially as commerce continues to grow.

Take LEGO’s combined approach, for example. In North America, the product description, piece count, and safety information are printed in English, French, and Spanish. Meanwhile, in Europe, the boxes only include numeric information and branding. This way, LEGO doesn’t clutter their entire box with dozens of translations of the same information. The instructions of LEGO sets, much like IKEA, use diagrams, arrows, and figural representations instead of language. The newly introduced LEGO Life app offers 3-D instructions and animations to help those who wouldn’t be able to read the instruction book.

Image from EuroBricks

Not all companies have the time or the budget to make all their communication material accessible to all languages and abilities. But, as business crosses borders more and more, it’s important to make at least a few accommodations. You can start by taking note of who engages with your business. Google Analytics offers both geographic and language metrics to your website’s analytics. Our clients are always surprised to see international interaction with their websites and services. You can use the examples above to improve your user experience across borders. Here are some tips for when you get started:

• Google Translate automatically translates websites on Chrome, depending on user preference, but it won’t work if the text is on an image. Make sure your important information is in plain text (or ALT text) on your ads and website.

• Make sure your images and iconography are clear and descriptive. Human emotions are a universal language, so you can use them to easily convey your message without words.

• Some social media, like LinkedIn, allows you to target your posts to certain languages. You can post the same message to multiple language groups without cluttering your public profile.

• The American Disability Association has suggestions to make web content more accessible to those with visual impairments.

InclusiCheck has a panel of experts to look over website content, marketing materials, and other company documents for inclusion and representation. We strive to make sure your voice reaches your audience, regardless of language, or visual or hearing impairment. Reach out today to see how InclusiCheck can help you.