Development of Warnings Resulting from Forensic Activity

Abstract

One of the arguments given for pursuing the rights of injured parties through the legal system in cases involving ergonomics principles is that it encourages corporations to modify their products or the warnings given about them to produce a safer environment. Unfortunately, this does not occur as often in practice as might be hoped. This report describes a case in which support for ergonomic research was provided by a corporation that wanted to insure their warnings were adequate. The effectiveness of pictograms in aiding persons with a limited command of English was investigated. Pictograms were first tested on college students and modified in accord with the feedback obtained from them. For the final test, subjects who were taking courses in English-as-a-Second-Language and courses for adults who were learning to read were selected. They were shown a letter printed in Greek symbols with pictograph representing an individual calling to get more information about the letter, and they were asked to describe how they would go about determining what the letter said. Although not all subjects indicated that they would call the number listed, their responses indicated that they would use reasonable strategies for learning its contents. In addition to showing the feasibility of such research procedures, the experiment suggested that future research was needed on the development of symbols indicating the need “to do” certain activities.