Details:

Alternative Title:
Reexamination of Color Vision Standards, Part III : Analysis of the Effects of Color Vision Deficiencies in Using ATC Displays.
Creators:
Xing, Jing
Corporate Creators:
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
Corporate Contributors:
United States. Office of Aerospace Medicine
Subject/TRT Terms:
[+]
Air Traffic Control Algorithms Color Deficiency Color Vision Deficiencies Displays Evaluation Human Factors Human Factors Evaluation Information Display Systems Standards
Publication/ Report Number:
DOT/FAA/AM-06/11
Resource Type:
Tech Report
Geographical Coverage:
United States
Corporate Publisher:
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
Abstract:
The purpose of this report is to assess the effect of color use in air traffic control (ATC) displays for users who have color vision deficiencies, denoted as color deficient (CD). At present, color is extensively used in many ATC displays, while the color vision standard used by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) allows certain types of CDs to enter the ATC workforce. Many guidelines for color use in visual displays state that color use should be accompanied with achromatic redundant cues to avoid misinterpretation by CD users. However, little has been documented in guidelines about the effect of redundant cues. Therefore, it is necessary to understand how CD personnel use colorcoded information in displays and whether redundant cues are helpful. Previously, we collected data about color use in displays from many ATC facilities. We also developed computational algorithms that could assess the effects of color vision deficiencies on the performance of color-related ATC tasks. The algorithms compared the effectiveness of using color-coded information between observers with normal color vision and CDs. The algorithms also considered the effectiveness of redundant visual cues relative to colors. In this report, we applied the algorithms to six ATC displays to estimate their efficient use by CDs. The main findings included the following: 1) Critical color-coded information may not capture the attention of CDs in many applications; 2) There are instances where CDs may not reliably identify types of information that are encoded in colors; and 3) In many instances color use makes text reading slower and less accurate for CDs. These results indicate that CDs may not be able to use color displays as efficiently as users with normal vision. In addition, we identified the situations where no redundant cues were used for task-critical color usages. Moreover, we estimated that most redundant cues were not as effective as color or not effective at all for the given task.
Format:
PDF
Collection(s):
US Transportation Collection FAA Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:6f65333525133535134cf5d083a65d4144cb6eda443b373fd4ef40a8f793a220
Download URL:
https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/21507/dot_21507_DS1.pdf
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