Background: Standards writers, national and international, have used different contrast calculations to set requirements in building elements for people with visual impairments. On the other hand, they have typically set a single requirement (30%) for specifying the minimum contrast. The systems are not linearly related and 30% means something rather different in each system.
Objective: To provide a comparison of the various scales in order to illustrate the differences caused by multiple scales with a single compliance value, recommend a single scale for universal adoption and, if a new measure is problematic for implementation, to recommend the most perceptually uniform of the present methods.
Methods: We use the contrast between combinations of 205 paint colours to illustrate the relationships between the measures. We use an internationally accepted scale, with equal perceptual steps, as a "gold standard" to identify the most perceptually uniform measurement scale in the existing methods.
Results: We show that Michelson contrast is the most perceptually uniform of the existing measurement scales. We show the contrasts in the proposed method that equate to the various current requirements.
Conclusions: We propose that CIE Metric Lightness could be used as the contrast measure. Alternatively, Michelson contrast is the most perceptually linear of the current measurement scales.
Keywords: Accessibility standards; contrast equations; contrast measures; safe navigation; universal design; visibility assessment; visual detection.