Visual contrast and light reflectance values

Visual contrast is the perception of a difference visually between one element of a building and another by reference to their light reflectance values. Light reflectance value (LRV) is the total quantity of visible light reflected by a surface at all wavelengths and directions when illuminated by a light source. For people with adequate vision, differences in the nature or the intensity of colour provide adequate visual contrast. Unfortunately, this is not the case for all people who are visually impaired. The main feature of a surface, which appears to be strongly correlated with the ability of visually impaired people to identify differences in colour, is the LRV. Differences in LRV can be used to assess the degree of visual contrast between the surfaces of elements such as handrails, doors, door furniture, key fittings/fixtures and surrounding surfaces, etc. The LRV scale runs from 0, which is a perfectly absorbing surface that could be assumed to be totally black, up to 100, which is a perfectly reflective surface that could be considered to be perfect white. Because of practical influences in any application, black is always greater than 0 and white never equals 100. A difference in LRV of 30 points or more allows a degree of variability that is required to provide reasonable visual contrast. For flat areas it is thought that LRV differences are less important between two large areas, e.g. between a wall and floor, than between a small object on a larger background surface, e.g. a light switch on a wall.