A Labour Of Love And Philanthropy Now Available For Free

By Robert Thomas

Pictogram was created in Moose Jaw

A chance observation by his four year old son while driving in 1975 set off a eureka moment in the mind of speech pathologist Subhas Maharaj leading to the creation of a picture oriented language communication system.

A language communication system which has both been controversial while at the same time heaped with praise from none other than one of the Saskatchewan Roughriders greatest stars - George Reed.

“Just by accident when we were driving around and my oldest son, who was four years old, said there is a place to get gas,” Maharaj said, adding “I thought to myself how the hell does he know that?”

Maharaj, who was at the time a speech pathologist at the now closed Valley View Centre, discovered his eldest son who was too young to read or write was getting his information from road signs which used symbols to indicate things like gasoline stations, restaurants and other roadside services.

“At my job, at the Valley View Centre 80 to 90 percent of the people living there were unable to communicate orally at the time and I gave it a thought and said hey that's an alternative,” he said.

What Maharaj developed from that observation became to be known as the Pictogram system for communication.

What Pictograms were at the time revolutionary not only because they moved away from the established system of communication diagrams - Bliss symbols - but they also used more realistic symbols and drawings to assist the intellectually challenged to communicate.

But unlike other systems at the time of its creation the Pictogram system never used two pictures that were the same. Each of the eventual 400 pictures were individual with no repeats or numbers as technical hashtags.

“A car looks like a car, a truck looks like a truck, a chair looks like a chair,” Maharaj said about Pictogram.

The Pictogram system additionally moved away from single symbols showing one object and one word to symbols which displayed clustered concepts. Clustered concepts are everyday used phrases which were standardized and realistic - such as “I want” combined with “an apple” - to form a sentence.

Where the Bliss System would use a picture of a fruit and then use a number beside it to indicate an apple, orange, pear etc the Pictogram employed realistic pictures of the fruit wanted.

Other symbol systems use less realistic drawings drawings - Maharaj referred to them as stick-like - which he sees as taking away the dignity of the user.

Pictogram - by using more realistic symbols - helps preserves a person’s dignity as they are not using simple drawings.

Being seen as radical at the time Pictogram ran into resistance but a speach he gave at Regina saw Maharaj catch the attention of the now defunct Saskatchewan Association For The Mentally Retarded (today re-named the Saskatchewan Association For Community Living) but also importantly George Reed.

Although a football legend in Saskatchewan Reed wanted to do more for the community.

So Reed and others established the George Reed Foundation to assist disable, disadvantaged and disengaged people to become productive, proud living to their potential in the community.

The Foundation supported Pictogram while others in the world of speech pathology outright rejected it.

“All the proceeds from Pictogram went to the George Reed Foundation. Where other systems were created for profit I see Pictogram as a philanthropic effort,” Maharaj said.

It is a communication system which saw Maharaj losing his job at the now closed Valley View Centre while at the same time lauded in foreign lands after a group in Sweden translated it from English into 23 languages.

In a recent statement which Reed published on the Internet, the football legend refers to Maharaj as “my hero” for his efforts, despite adversity, in helping people with disabilities to be able to communicate to become a more inclusive member of the community.

Despite not being used much in North America the system Maharaj discovered and developed seemingly by chance is used extensively in places like Japan, Vietnam and China. All thanks to translations done in Sweden.

Unintended Use - Refugees and Immigrants

With Pictogram translated into so many languages it has suddenly seen a re-birth in use where it was never initially intended for - non-English speaking refugees and immigrants.

With Ukrainian refugees now entering Canada there has been interest in using the system because it is already translated into Ukrainian by the people in Sweden.

It allows people who cannot speak English to get out into the community and communicate.

“I have already had three Ukrainian refugees on Western Canada, who cannot speak any English saying how they are using it,” he said.

The free website cam be accessed with a phone or downloaded or printed.

“People can go on a site and download their grocery shopping list and then go shopping. If they don't know how to ask clerks how to find a certain item they can use the symbols to assist with communication.”

Asked about the realistic lack of long term use of Pictogram being used by refugees and immigrants Magaraj sees that as OK.

“We first start to communicate with pictures and as we grow we learn to use words. It is a normal progression,” he said he is happy Pictogram is helping people to communicate as he intended it to do when he first created it in 1976 - right here in Moose Jaw.

“Anybody who is able to make use of Pictogram to communicate it is now available on-line free to all.”

The new web-site also includes updated into the computer age with the start of animated symbols.

Pictogram’s new website is http://pictoworld.com/ .