Sometimes you cannot see what is in front of you, even if you know it’s there. Visual biases exist all around us. We may gloss over unsafe working conditions and “fill in” what we’re used to seeing. Applying visual literacy to occupational safety can improve our ability to imagine the potential of hazards.

1. Visual Literacy:
How “Learning to See”
benefits occupational
safety
Joy Inouye
Research Associate
Campbell Institute

2. PREVENTABL
E
ELIMINATING
IN OUR LIFETIME
DEATHS

3. OUR PRIORITIES CUT
ACROSSALLAREAS OF
EVERYDAY LIFE

7. What is visual literacy?
Being able to:
perceive more information and details
“read” or “decode” visual information

8. VISUAL BIASES
Sometimes you cannot see what is in front of you, even if you
know it’s there
Once you see something, you can’t “un-see” it
You are always filling in the blanks based on what you expect to
be there

9. Can you see “it”?

10. Can you see it now?

11. These chess sets are actually the same color...

12. Can you see it now?

13. VISUAL BIASES
FILLING IN THE BLANKS
Can you read this?

14. VISUAL BIASES
FILLING IN THE BLANKS
Ca y u rea t is?

15. VISUAL BIASES
FILLING IN THE BLANKS
Y u a e not r adi g th s.

16. VISUAL BIASES
FILLING IN THE BLANKS
W at ar ou rea in ?

17. We can’t distinguish the “signals” from the “noise”
We become accustomed to seeing safe conditions and perceive
them as “normal”
We may gloss over unsafe conditions and “fill in” with what we’re
used to seeing
VISUAL BIASES
IN THE WORKPLACE

18. APPLYING VISUAL LITERACY

19. The elements of visual literacy
line – shape – color – texture – space

20. The elements of visual literacy
line – shape – color – texture – space

21. The elements of visual literacy
line – shape – color – texture – space

22. The elements of visual literacy
line – shape – color – texture – space

23. The elements of visual literacy
line – shape – color – texture – space

24. The elements of visual literacy
line – shape – color – texture – space

25. can describe not only pieces of art, but also
work environments
The elements of visual literacy
line – shape – color – texture – space

27. Improved visual literacy can lead to:
improved hazard recognition
better ability to imagine the potential
of hazards

28. How can visual literacy help?
Prevent incidents from occurring, or turn potential incidents into
near misses
Produce more detailed and descriptive incident reports
In investigations, gather better evidence from the scene or
witnesses

29. How can visual literacy help?
Verify and audit the effectiveness of corrective actions
Serves as on-going safety training and learning for workers at
every level

30. Visual literacy research
Train-the-trainer workshop
Inclusion of visual literacy principles in pre-
job five-minute safety talks

31. Activities to implement visual literacy
Back-to-back drawings: describe an object from your workspace
using the elements of art.
Think about how to describe a safety event to others in the
organization: upper management, operators, new hires, etc.
Sketch an object that you work with everyday. What are the
three most important features? Why?

32. Evaluation Metrics
Number of hazard
recognition or
near miss reports
filed
Number of stop
work orders filed
Quality of JSA
report
Consistency of
language in
hazard
recognition
reports

33. Questions?
Joy Inouye
Research Associate
Campbell Institute
joy.Inouye@nsc.org
www.thecampbellinstitute.org/
research