Development of a Standard Palette for Color Coding ATC Displays

Civil Aerospace Medical Institute2018PDFTech ReportGildea, Kevin M.Milburn, NeldaPost, David L.United States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. Office of Aviation. Civil Aerospace Medical InstituteUnited States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. Office of Aviation. Office of Aerospace MedicineUnited States. Department of Transportation. Federal Aviation Administration. Office of Aviation. Civil Aerospace Medical InstituteUnited StatesAir traffic controlColor codesVisibilityColor visionVideo display terminalsLegibilityElectromagnetic spectrumStandardsVisual perceptionVisually impaired personsAccessibilitycolor setConspicuitydeficient color visiondiscriminabilitylegendpaletterecognizabilitySpectrasRGBvisual searchreasonable accommodationDOT/FAA/AM-18/18FinalThis project was motivated by the FAA\u2019s Air Traffic Organization (ATO) Program Management Organization\u2019s (PMO) research requirement to address the need to accommodate air traffic controllers who have color-vision deficiencies (CVDs) to allow them to perform their duties using the latest air traffic control (ATC) color displays. Color has become an integral part of ATC displays, helping controllers to discriminate, identify, locate, and use information efficiently. The color palettes used on contemporary ATC systems were not designed for CVD controllers. The current project provides a recommended color palette that reasonably accommodates the CVD personnel, allowing them to perform their jobs as well as normal color vision (NCV) controllers. We developed a recommended color palette that provides a suitable set of colors that are proven to be discriminable, recognizable, conspicuous (i.e., easy to locate), and legible for CVD and color-normal controllers. The recommended palette meets these design objectives, and the human factors data and application of vision science provides the rational basis for it115