COMMUNICATING HEALTH AND SAFETY IN CONSTRUCTION: THE USE OF PICTURES ON CONSTRUCTION SITE POSTERS

摘要

Prior to the recent economic downturn there had been an increase in the migrant workforce in the UK with a large number of workers from many different nationalities working on projects such as the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, Heathrow Terminal 5 and the London 2012 Olympics. Health and safety managers are constantly looking for ways of overcoming language and literacy problems associated with a migrant workforce, to deliver training and reinforce health and safety messages. The use of posters without words can be used to overcome barriers created by language, low levels of literacy and visual problems (Wogalter et al., 1997). This paper reports on work to examine the use of pictorials in posters to convey health and safety information. An appropriate information processing model was identified and the results suggest that well illustrated pictorials are easily comprehended by diverse users and colour and location of posters increase their ability to be noticed.