Finding the right image to illustrate the priority areas of health and safety in the workplace: the NORA photolibrary.
Authors
Clough-Thomas-K; Tan-Wilhelm-D; Hogan-S; Heaps-W; Hart-S; Mandel-T; Headley-T
Source
Working Partnerships: Applying Research to Practice, NORA Symposium 2003, June 23-24, 2003, Arlington, Virginia. Washington, DC: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, 2003 Jun; :151
Abstract
As part of the communication enhancement efforts around National Occupational Research Agenda NORA, the Health Communication Research Branch HCRB is working to develop a library of visual images to help put a face to the hazards faced by the nation’s workforce. Creating such a resource library will help tell the story about NORA and its importance to the rapidly changing U.S. workplace. Through NORA, NIOSH strives to reach broader audiences with its messages and to define itself within the public health spectrum, providing a visual presence will compel audiences to see and listen. For many outside of NIOSH, the visual reference points for occupational safety and health are black and white images depicting work conditions of an earlier age, and an earlier economy. While often powerful and evocative, these images are not representative of today’s American workplace. This new photo resource library would allow NIOSH to define the contemporary occupational safety and health setting embodied in the NORA initiative; explain the hazards faced in today’s workplace, show those affected by them, and demonstrate the solutions for reducing those hazards. Additionally, given the Institute’s difficulty in finding the right image to illustrate the priority areas of health and safety in the workplace, it is not unlikely that occupational safety and health professionals outside of NIOSH also struggle with this issue. As we build this new resource, consideration would be given to assessing the needs of external occupational safety and health professionals. By determining their needs, interests, and preferred formats for the resource, NIOSH could create a product that would serve not only its own purposes, but those of occupational safety and health educators and professionals throughout the nation.
Keywords
Visual-images; Visual-aids; Visual-fields; Visual-perception; Photography; Photographers; Warning-devices; Warning-systems; Warning-signs
Source Name
Working Partnerships: Applying Research to Practice, NORA Symposium 2003, June 23-24, 2003, Arlington, Virginia
