Lapses in Literacy: Cultural Accessibility in Graphic Health Communication

ABSTRACT

This graphic meditation on issues of cultural relevance and accessibility in comic-based health communication texts presents the web of rhetorical considerations inherent in creating culturally accessible health communication texts. Applying recent technical communication theories related to social justice this article will examine contemporary instances of comics being used as health communication tools for culturally diverse patient populations. The authors offer original drawings and text for the article.

KEYWORDS:

• Communication design
• intercultural communication
• visual design
• medical communication

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

SUPPLEMENTAL DATA

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Veronica Garrison-Joyner

Veronica Garrison-Joyner is a PhD student in Writing and Rhetoric at George Mason University. Her research in the rhetoric of health and medicine explores the role of technical communication in addressing socially situated health disparities.

Elizabeth Caravella

Elizabeth Caravella is an assistant professor of Visual Studies At York University. Her current research examines the role of visual cues in video games, paying special attention to how these visual cues inform gaming pedagogy and the cultivation of games as digital cultures and digital identity.