A Culture of Illiteracy

Illiteracy is an embarrassing problem for many adults, especially when an individual is in a public place and searching for help. Adults who cannot read are forced to depend on others their whole life and rarely attempt to solve their problem by learning to read. I have been confronted with the epidemic of illiteracy on several fronts: a gentleman my dad knew from work asked for help reading a contract regarding a purchase he was trying to make, elderly men and women who cannot read or sign their name coming into the pharmacy, and even talking with a researcher who told me that an organization was asking him to reword his paper so that it could be read on an eighth grade level.

This problem was demonstrated at work this week. As I was leaving one evening, I noticed new signage placed around the atrium area. Instead of the new signs spelling things out, they simply used a symbol. The “P” leads you to parking, the three people in a square leads you to the elevators, and the “?” leads you to the information desk. Even exits are no longer labeled “Exit”; rather, the signs now read “Way Out.”

This is crazy. Before long, we will be writing in pictures on the sides of caves, carrying clubs, and banging rocks together trying to start a fire. We are supposed to be moving further away from the days of the cavemen, not closer to them!

The Information Desk

Parking and Elevators that Way