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Appendix IV — Power Indicator Colors and Accessibility Introduction The Power Control User Interface Standard specifies color assignments for power states for indicator lights; the “power indicator” should be green for on, amber for sleep, and off for off. About 8%of the U.S. male and 0.5% of the female population has some form of color deficiency (what is colloquially called “color blindness”). It is important to understand the implications of the user interface standard on this population and consider alternatives. The Professional Advisory Committee specifically asked that we investigate power indicator colors and their impact on accessibility. Among the reasons to choose the green/amber/off color assignment is consistency with traffic signal light colors, and with the international standard for indicators (IEC 73). While not a power state, when an error is to be indicated red should be used, so we included red in our review of color issues. Many color-deficient people find green and yellow colors difficult to differentiate. We have anecdotal evidence that some existing office equipment have green and yellow indicator lights not readily distinguishable by many color-deficient people (and specifications of some current bi-color LEDs confirm this). Choosing the right colors can largely eliminate the problem. Even people without color deficiency may benefit by being less likely to misinterpret indicators that are designed to be accessible to the color-deficient. This discussion provides background information to help product designers specify colors for accessibility. While the term “amber” is often used in the context of power indicators, the traffic signal light literature uses “yellow”, so we use that in the remainder of this discussion, except for when product literature uses amber specifically. Color Metrics and Perception Color science is an extremely complex field. It is possible to describe colors in many different ways, some of which depend on how