Suitability of school textbooks for 5 to 7 year old children with colour vision deficiencies

PurposeThe 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.ResultsTextbooks 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.ConclusionsSome 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.

► Textbooks of mathematics for 5 to 7 year old contain 10% of tasks involving colour.
► Colorimetric analysis revealed potentially confusing colour combinations.
► Tasks requiring colour discrimination could not be solved by colour deficient observers.
► Many editorial boards were committed to redesign their textbooks.