Biomaterial Database

Pre-employment colour vision testing. 1992

N L McElearney, and R S Waddy, and C C Rawll

British Airways Health Services, Heathrow Airport, Middlesex, UK.

Male candidates (1020) for employment in occupations that required discrimination of colour were subjected to the Ishihara test and two trade tests of colour perception, the Giles Archer Lantern test and the Electricity Supply Industry (ESI) wire test. One hundred candidates failed the Ishihara test, 61 of the 100 passed both trade tests; 16 of the 100 passed the wire test alone and 7 of the 100 passed the lantern test alone but only 16 failed all 3 tests. Seventy-seven of the 84 who passed some part of their colour perception assessment were offered employment appropriate to their colour vision ability. Eleven of the 16 who passed the wire test alone and 3 of the 6 who passed the lantern test alone successfully entered employment. The Ishihara test, whilst being a useful screening test, is not sufficient on its own as a test of suitability for employment; one or more trade tests should be administered before rejecting candidates who fail it.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D008297	Male		Males
D003117	Color Vision Defects	Defects of color vision are mainly hereditary traits but can be secondary to acquired or developmental abnormalities in the CONES (RETINA). Severity of hereditary defects of color vision depends on the degree of mutation of the ROD OPSINS genes (on X CHROMOSOME and CHROMOSOME 3) that code the photopigments for red, green and blue.	Achromatopsia,Color Blindness,Monochromatopsia,Color Blindness, Acquired,Color Blindness, Blue,Color Blindness, Green,Color Blindness, Inherited,Color Blindness, Red,Color Blindness, Red-Green,Color Vision Deficiency,Deutan Defect,Protan Defect,Tritan Defect,Achromatopsias,Acquired Color Blindness,Blindness, Color,Blue Color Blindness,Color Blindness, Red Green,Color Vision Defect,Color Vision Deficiencies,Defect, Color Vision,Defect, Deutan,Defects, Color Vision,Deficiencies, Color Vision,Deficiency, Color Vision,Green Color Blindness,Inherited Color Blindness,Red Color Blindness,Red-Green Color Blindness,Vision Defect, Color,Vision Defects, Color,Vision Deficiencies, Color,Vision Deficiency, Color
D004651	Employment	The state of being engaged in an activity or service for wages or salary.	Employment Termination,Employment Status,Labor Force,Occupational Status,Status, Occupational,Underemployment,Labor Forces,Status, Employment,Termination, Employment
D006113	United Kingdom	Country in northwestern Europe including Great Britain and the northern one-sixth of the island of Ireland, located between the North Sea and north Atlantic Ocean. The capital is London.	Great Britain,Isle of Man
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D000401	Aircraft	A weight-carrying structure for navigation of the air that is supported either by its own buoyancy or by the dynamic action of the air against its surfaces. (Webster, 1973)	Ejection Seats,Helicopters,Airplanes,Airplane,Ejection Seat,Helicopter,Seat, Ejection,Seats, Ejection
D012680	Sensitivity and Specificity	Binary classification measures to assess test results. Sensitivity or recall rate is the proportion of true positives. Specificity is the probability of correctly determining the absence of a condition. (From Last, Dictionary of Epidemiology, 2d ed)	Specificity,Sensitivity,Specificity and Sensitivity
D015351	Vision Screening	Application of tests and examinations to identify visual defects or vision disorders occurring in specific populations, as in school children, the elderly, etc. It is differentiated from VISION TESTS, which are given to evaluate/measure individual visual performance not related to a specific population.	Screening, Vision,Screenings, Vision,Vision Screenings