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John Debes coined the term "visual literacy" in the late 1960s, and defined it as the ability "to discriminate and interpret the visible actions, objects, symbols, natural or man-made, that he encounters in his environment."
Others have defined visual literacy in other ways, including:
"The ability to understand and produce visual images" and "learning how images convey meaning." --teachers.ash.org.au
"The active reconstruction of past visual experiences with incoming visual messages to obtain meaning." --Richard Sinatra in Visual Literacy Connections to Thinking, Reading, and Writing
For the purposes of this web site, visual literacy will be defined as the ability to interpret and understand visual texts, with "texts" being broadly defined as any print visual item, including artwork, picture books, advertising, web sites, or any other item that can be visually interpreted.
Visual literacy skills are important for children to learn in today's ever more visual world, and there are many ways that you can teach visual literacy and include visual interpretation in fun and creative ways into your library or classroom.