Abstract
The provision of suitable contrast in the built environment not only contributes to a better accessibility and safety, but also improves wayfinding in buildings for all users, when applied well. Many standards on accessibility require a level of contrast for better visibility of different critical elements, such as signage, differences in floor level or the indication of treads on stairs or localisation of obstacles (furniture and sanitary fittings…). Standard descriptions are available illustrating how the contrast should be realised and where it should be provided. Unfortunately, many of these standards are difficult to put in practice and contain much other information besides the contrast requirement. This chapter describes the development of a tool, focussing on visual contrast and its use in the built environment. The tool has been developed to be easy to use by any building professionals and helps providing good contrasts in different particular situations which are integrated into the tool.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Australian Standard (2001) 1428-1: Design for access and mobility, general requirements for access, new building works. Standards Australia, Sydney
BSI (2008) BS 8493—Light reflectance value (LRV) of a surface—method of test. British Standard Institution, London, UK
BSI (2009) BS 8300—Design of buildings and their approaches to meet the needs of disabled people—code of practice. British Standard Institution, London, UK
Bureau voor Normalisatie (2011) NBN EN 12665—Light and lighting—basic terms and criteria for specifying lighting requirements, p 53
CIE (2011) CIE 196—Guide to increasing accessibility in light and lighting—vision data and design considerations for better visibility and lighting for older people and people with disabilities. International Commission on Illummination, Vienna, Austria
CISSS (2017) Institut Nazareth and Louis Braille. http://www.inlb.qc.ca/grand-public/accessibilite-et-adaptation/amenagements-des-lieux/. Accessed 10 Mar 2017
Danschutter S, D’Herdt P, Deneyer A (2010) Eclairage et contraste pour les personnes malvoyantes, vol 3, no 12. WTCB-Dossier, Brussels, Belgium, pp 1–5
DIN (2012) DIN 32975—Gestaltung visueller Informationen im öffentlichen Raum zur barrierefreien Nutzung. Beuth Verlag, Berlin
ISO (2011) ISO 21542—Accessibility and usability of the built environment. International Organization for Standardization, Switzerland
Lenoir M, Den Brinker B, Kestelyn P, Leroy B, Jonia I, Walraedt S et al (2010) New standard for the visual accessibility of signs and signage for people with low vision. ANEC report, ANEC-DFA-2008-G-044-Annex 6rev
Sagawa K, Kurakata K (2013) Estimation of legible font size for elderly people—accessible design of characters in signs and displays and its standardization. Synthesiology 6(1):34–44
United States Sign Council Foundation (2017) www.usscfoundation.org. Accessed 17 Nov 2017
Van de Perre L, Hanselaer P, Scheir GH, Smet K, Ryckaert WR (2016) Contrast metrics evaluation. In: Proceedings of CIE 2016, Melbourne, Australia, 3–5 Mar 2016, pp 70–78
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Danschutter, S., Deroisy, B. (2018). A Practical Tool for the Evaluation of Contrast. In: Langdon, P., Lazar, J., Heylighen, A., Dong, H. (eds) Breaking Down Barriers. CWUAAT 2018. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75028-6_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75028-6_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-75027-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-75028-6
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)