Icons as Helpers in the Interaction of Illiterate Users with Computers

The literacy level of a significant part of the Brazilian population is insufficient for a proficient use of computers and for an autonomous access to digital contents as those currently available on the Internet. Although this problem also exists in other developing countries, its features depend on many sociocultural and educational factors that distinguish each country. Thus, most of the studies on digital inclusion of illiterate users undertaken abroad, as is often the case in studies for countries in Asia and Africa, are not totally suited to Brazil’s context, which is mainly characterized by a higher prevalence of functional illiteracy rather than by full illiteracy, and in which multiligualism is marginal. Hence, besides the use of icons as supporters in understanding digital contents, as often proposed for those other countries, we particularize the problem to Brazil by investigating how icons reinforce the reading skills of semi-literate users, a key issue given the literacy level of many Brazilian citizens. Thus, this paper addresses both the use of icons in supporting digital content navigation and their role in scaffolding limited reading skills when accessing digital contents.