Abstract
It has been accepted that defective colour vision is an occupational handicap since Wilson observed the high prevalence of defective colour vision among his students and wrote, in 1855, about the dangers ‘attending the present system of railway and marine coloured signals’. Standards for colour vision were introduced for the maritime and railroad transport in the 1870s and for aviation in 1919. Colour vision standards for drivers of motor vehicles have not been widely adopted and never effectively, and there is no accepted system of standards for that wide gamut of occupations that involve colour recognition, colour discrimination or aesthetic judgment of colour. The recent emergence of the concept of equal employment opportunity to prevent unjustified exclusion of the handicapped from employment and the advocacy of an articulate group of people with defective colour vision who do not wish to be excluded from their choice of occupation has weakened some existing standards. Yet there is an impressive body of evidence to show that colour figures importantly in many occupations and that some of those with defective colour vision will perform less effectively in those occupations because of their defect. There is also evidence that those with defective colour vision have a range of difficulties in everyday life, although this has been studied surprisingly little in the last 125 years. There are accident data to suggest that defective colour vision is a risk factor, but accident data are always uncertain and in weighing up the extent to which defective colour vision is a risk factor more credence has been given to the uncertainty of the data than to the indications of risk. There is a need for better definition of colour vision standards and of test protocols and for international advocacy and acceptance of the standards. A schema of colour vision standards and test procedures is proposed.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Administrative Appeals Tribunal (1989). Transcript of proceedings, Denison vs. Dept. of Transport. Melbourne, Australia: Commonwealth Reporting Service.
Boltz, C.L. (1952). Statue to Mr Trattles and Other Scientific Topics. London: Butterworth.
Christ, R.E. (1975). Review and analysis of color coding research for visual displays. Hum. Factors 17: 542–570.
Cole, B.L. (1972). The handicap of abnormal colour vision. Aust. J. Optom. 55: 304–310.
Cole, B.L. & Vingrys, A.J. (1982). A survey and evaluation of lantern tests of color vision. Am. J. Optom. Physiol. Opt. 59: 346–374.
Cole, B.L. & Vingrys, A.J. (1983). Do protanomals have difficulty seeing red lights? Proc. CIE 2s0th Session, Amsterdam, 1983. Paris: CIE Publication 56, E04.
Cole, B.L. & Brown, B. (1966). Optimum intensity of red road-traffic signal lights for normal and protanopic observers. J. Opt. Soc Am. 56: 516–522.
Cole, B.L. & Macdonald, W.A. (1988). Defective colour vision can impede information acquisition from colour coded video displays. Ophthal. Physiol. Opt. 8: 198–210.
Dille, J.R. & Booze, C.F. (1976). Accident Experience of Civilian Pilots with Static Physical Defects. Rep. No. FAA-AM-76-7. Washington, DC: Fed. Aviation Admin. (1980) and Can. J. Optom. 42: 159–162.
Donders, F.C. (1877). Die quantitative Bestimmung des Farbenunterscheidungsvermögen. Von Graefe’s Arch. Ophthalmol. 23: 282–291.
Farnsworth, D. (1943). The Farnsworth-Munsell 100 Hue and Dichotomous Tests for color vision. J. Opt. Soc. Am. 33: 568–578.
Favre, A. (1873). Du Daltonisme au point de vue de 1’industrie des chemins de fer. Lyon Med. 14: 6–20.
Frey, R.G. (1975). Ein Eisenbahnungluck vor 100 Jahren als Anlass für systematische Untersuchungen des Farbensehens. Klin. Mbl. Augenheilk. 167: 125–127.
Harper, C.R. (1964). Physical defects of civilian pilots related to aircraft accidents. Aerospace Med. 35: 851–856.
Heath, G.G. & Schmidt, I. (1959). Signal color recognition by color defective observers. Am. J. Optom. Arch. Am. Acad. Optom. 36: 421–437.
Holmes, J.G. (1981). Coloured light signals of the 1930s and 1980s. In: Golden Jubilee of Colour in the CIE. Proceedings of the Colour Group Symposium, pp. 78–97. Bradford: Society of Dyers and Colourists.
Holmgren, F. (1877). Color blindness in its relationship to accidents by rail and sea. In: General Appendix to the Smithsonian Report: 131–195. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institute.
Jefferies, B.J. (1883). Colour Blindness, Its Dangers and Its Detection. Revised Edition. Cambridge, USA: The Riverside Press.
Kinney, J.A.S., Paulson, H.M. & Beare, A.N. (1979). The ability of color defectives to judge signal lights at sea. J. Opt. Soc. Am. 69: 106–113.
Macdonald, W.A. & Cole, B.L. (1988). Evaluating the role of colour in a flight information cockpit display. Ergonomics 31: 13–28.
Medical Research Council. (1933). Colour-Vision Requirements in the Royal Navy. Spec. Rep. Comm. Physiol. Vis. Ser. 185 Rep 12: 1–58. London: HMSO.
Paulson, H.M. (1966). The performance of the Farnsworth lantern at the submarine medical research laboratory and in the field from 1955 to 1965. Report No. 466. Med. Res. Lab. New London, Conn: US Naval Submarine Base.
Nathan, J., Henry, G.H. & Cole, B.L. (1964). Recognition of colored road traffic light signals by normal and color-vision-defective observers. J. Opt. Soc. Am. 54: 1041–1045.
Norman, L.G. (1960). Medical aspects of road safety. Lancet: 1039–1045.
Sloan, L.L. & Habel, A. (1955a). Color signal systems for the red-green color blind. An experimental test of the three-color signal system proposed by Judd. J. Opt. Soc. Am. 45: 592–598.
Sloan, L.L. & Habel, A. (1955b). Recognition of red and green point sources by color-deficient observers. J. Opt. Soc. Am. 45: 599–601.
Steen, J.A., Collins, W.E. & Lewis, M.F. (1974). Utility of several clinical tests of color defective vision in predicting daytime and night-time performance with aviation signal gun. Aerospace Med. 45: 467–472.
Steward, J.M. & Cole, B.L. (1989). What do color vision defectives say about everyday tasks? Optom. Vis. Sci. 66: 288–295.
Topley, H. (1959). Sight testing for the merchant navy. Brit. J. Physiol. Opt. 16: 36–47.
Verriest, G., Neubauer, O., Marré, M. & Uvijls, A. (1980). New investigations concerning the relationships between congenital colour vision defects and road traffic security. Int. Ophthalmol. 2: 87–99.
Vingrys, A.J. & Cole, B.L. (1983). Validation of the Holmes-Wright lantern for testing colour vision. Ophthal. Physiol. Opt. 3: 137–152.
Vingrys, A.J. & Cole, B.L. (1986). Origins of colour vision standards within the transport industry. Ophthal. Physiol. Opt. 6: 369–375.
Vingrys, A.J. & Cole, B.L. (1988). Are standards of colour vision in the transport industries justified? Ophthal. Physiol. Opt. 8: 1257–1274.
Voke, J. (1980). Colour-vision Testing in Specific Industries and Professions. London: Keeler.
Wilson, G. (1855). Researches on colour blindness. With a supplement on the danger attending the present system of railway and marine coloured signals. Edinburgh: Sutherland & Knox. Address for correspondence: Barry L. Cole, Department of Optometry, University of Melbourne, Parkville, 3052 Victoria, Australia.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1993 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cole, B.L. (1993). Does defective colour vision really matter?. In: Drum, B. (eds) Colour Vision Deficiencies XI. Documenta Ophthalmologica Proceedings Series, vol 56. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1856-9_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1856-9_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-4820-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-1856-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive