Campbell Institute releases paper on visual literacy pilot study

Itasca, IL — The Campbell Institute at the National Safety Council has released the findings of a pilot study showing that workers who are trained on the concept of visual literacy are able to spot workplace hazards that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.

In the report, A Second Look: Update on Visual Literacy, the institute details how companies such as Cummins Inc. have trained employees in visual literacy principles and the results seen, including a three-month period in which 132 issues were identified and 25 new hazards were corrected. Workers also showed a heightened risk perception and lower risk tolerance.

“About 90 percent of the information people consume is visual,” John Dony, director of the Campbell Institute, said in a March 5 press release. “Taking in that much visual data can lead us to have inattentional blindness – only seeing what we deem important to see, but being blind to many other details like potential hazards. That’s why training workers to better see where those hazards might exist is crucial to workplace health and safety.”

Register to attend a free webinar on March 19 to learn more about the pilot study.