Symbols designed to help immigrants

CINCINNATI (AP) — Hospitals can be tough to navigate, especially for immigrants who speak little or no English.

So students at four colleges have designed a series of navigation symbols — from a large white tooth to show dental services, to a head with gears inside depicting mental health services — as a way to help guide immigrants through the daunting mazes of hospital hallways and buildings.

The students’ creations resemble the geometric designs representing a person in a wheelchair for handicapped services and the figures of a man and a woman for male and female restrooms, and are part of an effort to create standardized signs for all health-care settings.

The design students attend the University of Cincinnati and Kent State University in Ohio, California Polytechnic State University and Iowa State University.

Professional designers also have created symbols, including a teddy bear with a cross in its center for pediatrics and a symbol showing test tubes and a microscope for laboratories.

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