Standards Related to Human Factors/Ergonomics

The goal of this standards page is to provide links to standards for use in application or teaching in the human factors/ergonomics area. See the educational resources review criteria page.

If you have any suggestions for content or information to add to this page, please contact HFES.

Where to Find Standards and Related Papers or Presentations

The main standards bodies appear to be the following:

American National Standards Institute (ANSI)

American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) International

International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
http://www.iso.org/iso/en/ISOOnline.frontpage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ International_Organization_for_Standardization

Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE)

The following groups have links to standards or presentations related to standards. CEN does not sell standards but can direct individuals to the appropriate outlet using the online catalogue. Also, there are presentations on various topics listed on CEN's search page that one can download at no apparent cost.

University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute
This Web site for the Human Factors Division - Driver Interface Group has a Telematics Guidelines link under Resources, which lists various standards for driving.

European Committee for Standardization (CEN)
Online catalogue: http://www.cen.eu/catweb/cwen.htm
Search page with presentation postings: http://www.cen.eu/cenorm/search.htm

Human Factors and Ergonomics Society: Standards
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society's mission is to promote the discovery and exchange of knowledge concerning the characteristics of human beings that are ...

DoD Human Factors Engineering Technical Advisory Group SubTAG
The standard establishes general human factors engineering design criteria for marine vessels, systems, subsystems, and equipment contained therein in ...

DoD Human Factors Engineering Technical Advisory Group Standardization Documents
http://www.hfetag.com/hfs_docs.html
The Index provides a comprehensive list of nongovernment specifications and standards. The Index is a product of the Human Factors Standardization SubTAG.

There is one group out there also attempting to organize what standards exist:

What human factors standards are there?

Please help us to grow this directory of human factors standards and guides by letting us know if there is a resource to add to the list.

Accessibility standards
http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/508standards.pdf (.pdf, 343 KB)

Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT)
http://www.itic.org/archives/articles/20040506/ faq_voluntary_product_accessibility_template_vpat.php

W3C-Sponsor for Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG)
http://www.w3.org/WAI/

ISO Standard for SW Accessibility
http://www.iso.org/iso/en/CatalogueDetailPage.CatalogueDetail?CSNUMBER=39080&scopelist=PROGRAMME

Below are ISO IT Ergonomics Standards related to hardware for usability, GUI, etc. (family of 9241 standards).

ISO 9241-3 Ergonomics requirements for office work with visual display terminals (VDTs) - Part 3: Visual display requirements
• ISO 9241-7 Ergonomics requirements for office work with visual display terminals (VDTs) - Part 7: Display requirements with reflections
• ISO 9241-8 Ergonomics requirements for office work with visual display terminals (VDTs) - Part 8: Requirements for displayed colours
• ISO 13406-2 Ergonomic requirements for work with visual displays based on flat panels - Part 2: Ergonomic requirements for flat panel displays
• ISO 9241-4 Ergonomics requirements for office work with visual display terminals (VDTs) - Part 4: Keyboard requirements (sections that are applicable to portable keyboard only)
• ISO 9995 Parts 1-8 Information technology - Keyboard layouts for text and office systems.
• ISO 9241-9 Ergonomics requirements for office work with visual display terminals (VDTs) - Part 9: Requirements for non-keyboard input devices

Access to Standards, Papers, and Presentations

Except for some presentations listed on CEN and the information on HFES (links listed above) all papers, presentations, and standards appear to have a fee associated with them.

Because standards can be extremely specific, it is not possible to list all standards. Individuals are encouraged to search the Web sites of organizations listed above to find standards relevant to a specific issue.

Below are examples of standards and related papers, presentations, or training opportunities found when seeking standards on the main areas of interest to HF/E members identified from our earlier needs survey administered in 2003. The following examples do not comprise an exhaustive list, but rather give examples of the types of documents available from the various organizations. If one of the standards organizations is not listed, then no appropriate examples were found. Finally, a general search on the Web resulted in several standards sources. These links are listed under the appropriate content areas and identified as a WWW source.

The final entry in this table is a list of general sources found with a search on the WWW.

Other resources will be added periodically.