Beyond Words is the UK’s national charity for visual literacy and emotional wellbeing. Everyone knows pictures can be more powerful than words. Being able to ‘read’ the images we see is how we know a green light means go, a smile means someone is happy to see us, or that a piece of art is telling us a story. This is the core of visual literacy – the ability to make meaning from the pictures in front of us.

We work with people with lived experience to co-create word-free picture stories that help people understand and communicate their feelings, learn about new experiences and tell their own stories. We set up book clubs that give people with learning disabilities a space to have fun, make friends and socialise. Our books help children and young people to develop their emotional intelligence, vocabulary and talk about their feelings in schools through our Open Book Project.