Abstract

A number of occupations have established vision standards or requirements that must be met by job applicants. Many of these vision requirements have either been adapted from military standards, from expert opinions of vision specialists, or from a historical precedent of undetermined origin. Only a few occupational vision standards have been based on research directed towards empirically-defined measures of performance (Giannoni, 1981; Good and Augsburger, 1987; North, 1993, Sheedy, 1980). With the recent advent of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), it has now been mandated that physical requirements for specific occupations must be based on validation studies that pertain to performance of essential job functions. Expert opinion is no longer sufficient to justify or defend occupational standards for vision.

© 1995 Optical Society of America