Back in the late 1970’s, an
international push began to help foreigners, and Americans, alike, to better
maneuver through society.
This effort began the transition
from worded/written signs to pictures that could be easily deciphered by
anyone, anywhere.
If you’ve ever left your home,
you likely witnessed crosswalk signal figures – hunched over stick people
appearing as if suffering from scoliosis – to indicate the appropriate time to
cross the street, or wait.
This is important to the safety
of non-English speakers visiting America ,
and non-foreign language adept people remaining safe in America
Speaking of going, bathroom
signage has also been artistically manipulated to allow the quick and efficient
identification of the “men’s room” over the “women’s room.” Those readers wanting to know more about
cross-gender and bi-sexual bathrooms need to wait for a future story. But I digress.
Driving along major arteries,
commuters can expeditiously see which exits offer food, gas, and lodging,
because of pictures of eating utensils, a petrol pump, and a bed, respectively,
on blue signs. Pretty efficient, I’d
say.
Whether in Belgium , Switzerland ,
Italy , Spain , or the United States
As an aside, I’ve traveled around
the world and stumbled into an occasional time or two when I found myself lost
for direction and the ability to communicate with others. As such, I feel this initiative created a
great tool for everyone.
It’s been roughly 40-years since
this international program began here, and seems to be a success. Well, a partial success, if you want to be
petty.
A newspaper article I was reading
explained that a Guatemalan family brought a lawsuit against Universal Orlando
Resort regarding warning signs.
Per the Associated Press article,
“the family’s 38-year-old father suffered a fatal heart attack two years ago
after going on the Skull Island: Reign of Kong ride. Jose Calderon Arana, who had prior heart
problems, didn’t speak English…”
Arana’s family evidently decided
Universal has really, really deep pockets and needs to be summarily punished
for “not displaying warning signs in Spanish.”
Of course, the family’s attorney
doesn’t feel it’s unreasonable to force Universal to post warning signs in
varying languages, to include Spanish.
In 2017, local tourism figures
show that over 6,000,000 of Orlando ’s 72,000,000
visitors came from outside the United
States
In any case, the Kong rollercoaster
ride had been open for about 18-months at the time of Arana’s unfortunate
death.
“A sign at the entrance of the
ride says in English, “Warning! This
ride is an expedition through rough terrain of King Kong’s natural
habitat. The movement of the truck is
dynamic with sudden accelerations, dramatic tilting, and jarring actions.”
As you can probably tell, this
was penned by some corporate lawyer, the same type that writes warning notes
posted on those cheap, plastic butane lighters that tell you to keep them away
from children and open spilled gasoline.
The last sentence of the article
reads, “Each of the situations has an accompanying drawing.”
It is here where I ask the simple
question: Why did the world go through all the trouble and expense of changing
and modifying signs to cartoon-like pictures?
What am I missing?
