Suitability of School Textbooks for 5 to 7 Year Old Children with Colour Vision Deficiencies

Purpose: The aim of the present study was to determine, through colorimetric analysis, whether school textbooks for children aged 5 to 7 years contained tasks requiring normal colour vision discrimination for their resolution. In addition, the performance of a group of observers with diverse colour vision deficiencies was evaluated while conducting the tasks under analysis. Results: Textbooks of mathematics were found to include 10% of tasks which, to an observer with colour vision deficiency, would be very difficult or impossible to solve. The level of difficulty of each task was influenced by the type and degree of colour vision deficiency and by the actual ambient illumination under which it was observed. Conclusions: Some school textbooks need to be redesigned through an alternative use of colours and textures to take into consideration colour vision deficiencies. In view of the present findings, many Spanish editorial boards have committed to undertake these changes. (Contains 3 figures and 2 tables.)