“I see a drawing. I think it is. . .” Investigating visual ‘literacy’ among adult learners in KwaZulu-Natal

Abstract

This article reports on a research project in KwaZulu-Natal which investigated how Zuluspeaking adults who attended literacy classes interpreted illustrations from health education materials. Individual interviews were conducted in rural and urban areas, where participants responded to a range of pictures in order to assess the effectiveness of different approaches to communication. The research intended to discover whether dated guidelines on illustrating for readers with limited education are still useful, and to offer insights to guide the future practice of illustrators in similar contexts. Patterns of interpretation were observed which suggested different levels of interpretation of the illustrations, revealing ways in which participants made and expressed meaning from what they saw. These levels correspond with semiotic theories of visual communication. Semiotic approaches to visual analysis provide tools with which to explore the construction of meaning. In this way the article theorises visual interpretation in the context of health education materials designed for audiences with limited education