The Importance of Colour Contrasting to Assist Those With Vision Impairments

Although I am disabled myself, It was not until I became an Access Auditor that I studied such disabilities as vision impairments that I became aware of the true facts.

There are over two million registered blind people in the UK with more than five million unregistered. 94% of those blind people can see to some degree or other be it colours, shades or distorted shapes etc.

It is because of this I would like to share the importance of colour and luminance contrasting to give aid to the many vision impaired people in the world.

For example if a person with a vision impairment enters say a public WC they would find a white WC system, white walls (Probable), white wash basin and so one those facilities would be near on impossible to locate.

By painting the walls in a contrasting colour those white objects stand out can be identified by most vision-impaired people. Handrails on stairs that are the same colour as the wall in another example but in this case a danger when not identified. Simple solution again in contrast the rails in say blue, black, green in fact any colour that will create a strong contrast.

A large part of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 that became law on October 2004 is the requirement of contrasting many everyday objects to offer assistance to those millions with visual impairments. For more details on the DDA see my web site at www.access-auditing.com If you require any information on this subject please feel free to contact me via that address.