----- Original Message ----- From: "Roger James" <ejames@xxxxxxxxx> > GRAPEVINE, Texas (AP) =97 American Airlines says it disagrees with a plan to= > use only English signs at an international terminal under construction at=20 > Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Fort Worth-based American is the=20 > world's largest airline and accounts for almost 70 percent of all flights=20 > out of DFW. The new international terminal is scheduled to open in 2005. At= > the very least, the signs should be written in Spanish, too, American=20 > spokesman John Hotard said. Currently, airport signs are written in=20 > Spanish, French, German and Chinese. The plan is to replace them with signs= > in English and universal icons to direct passengers to taxis, restrooms and= > ticket counters. "You either have to put all languages up or none of them,= > because you don't want to leave someone out," Clay Paslay, executive vice=20 > president for airport development, said in Wednesday's editions of The=20 > Dallas Morning News. "With the icons and consistency in format, that=20 > international passenger from anywhere in the world will be able to find his= > or her way along." I agree with the DFW Airport officials-- either you put the signs up in multiple languages or you use international pictograms. Otherwise you leave out someone, and they'll be annoyed. This is the approach I used when I worked for the New York City Transit Authority and when I designed the interior graphics (informational stickers) that appear within each subway car. These are the black and white and red stickers that provide Emergency Instructions, exhort you not to litter, to close windows, not ride between cars, etc. At the time only some of the stickers were in Spanish and English. I changed them to international pictograms and supplemented it with text using the most common language. According to my research with the US Census, that language was English-- hence today's stickers rely upon pictograms supplemented by English text. I find it amusing that the LIRR, Metro-North, LA Metrolink, Newark AirTrain monorail have all copied at least one of my pictograms, some more than one, though not necessarily the same color scheme in the case of LIRR. Kenneth Lin