At Case, we are supporters of Learning Disability Awareness Week (19th – 26th June). This week strives to `bust` myths about people living with learning disabilities and to prove they can get a job, start a family, learn more things, and with the right support, achieve everything they desire. It also proudly displays the achievements of learning-disabled people. This blog celebrates Learning Disability Awareness Week by highlighting the inclusive tools available for budding chefs and bakers who also happen to live with a learning disability. Thanks for reading!
Visual recipes and cooking books with symbol-supported text are available for adults who are visually impaired or have a learning disability
Believe it or not, recipe books have been around since the 17th century! Though, they became really popular much later as literacy skills progressed amongst the general public. Nowadays, there’s a reason that the likes of Mary Berry, Nigella Lawson, and Joe Wicks have written their own… because we still follow the ingredients and method as we did all those years ago! Traditionally, recipes were written with no images alongside them.
In recent years, we’ve come to acknowledge that some adults with learning disabilities like dyslexia – along with visually impaired adults – struggle to follow a recipe by reading text. Maybe they can’t see the words properly, or they don’t understand them. If your colleague, friend, family member, or an adult you support struggles to read, too – then perhaps visual recipes or cooking books with `symbol-supported text` or `symbolic text` would make this task more enjoyable for them.
What is symbol-supported text, or symbolic text?
Symbol-supported text or symbolic text describes a format that uses symbols below words to make the text more comprehensible to visually-impaired or learning-disabled people. For example, a symbol or picture of a bird will appear under the word `bird`, a broken arm to represent the word `hurt`, a backward arrow for `yesterday`, and so many more. Some symbols are an exact representation of the word (like bird), whereas others require the user to learn them to know what they mean (like yesterday).
See some examples of symbol-supported text here
Resources for you
Free recipes with step-by-step pictures
- Symbol-supported recipe book – Cook and Eat Easy Read Books
- Visual Recipes for Non-Readers – https://www.pathstoliteracy.org/visual-recipes-non-readers/
Recipe apps for visually impaired adults
This topic in the news
BBC Good Food: How people learn to cook without reading