Reaffirmed 2023

NATIONAL FOREWORD

This Indian Standard which is identical with ISO 26800 : 2011 ‘Ergonomics — General approach, principles and concepts’ issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was adopted by the Bureau of Indian Standards on recommendation of the Ergonomics Sectional Committee and approval of the Production and General Engineering Division Council.

Human, technological, economic, environmental and organizational factors all affect the behaviour, activities and well-being of people in work, domestic and leisure contexts. The science of ergonomics has evolved from its origins in the context of work to embrace many other fields of application, such as home and leisure. However, whatever the context, the underlying principles of ergonomics remain the same, although the relative emphasis placed on them will vary. These principles are fundamental to the design process wherever human involvement is expected, in order to ensure the optimum integration of human requirements and characteristics into a design. This International Standard considers systems, users, workers, tasks, activities, equipment and the environment as the basis for optimizing the match between them. These principles and concepts serve to improve safety, performance and usability (effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction), while safeguarding and enhancing human health and well-being, and improving accessibility (for example, for elderly persons and persons with disabilities).

Ergonomics covers a wide range of issues, including physical, cognitive, social and organizational. These are ideally addressed within an integrated framework. A substantial number of ergonomics standards have been developed to cover specific issues and different application domains. All depend upon the basic principles and concepts that are fundamental to the ergonomics approach to design. This International Standard has been developed in order to provide an integrated framework, bringing together the basic principles and concepts of ergonomics in one document, and thus providing a high-level view of the way in which ergonomics is applied.

The text of ISO Standard has been approved as suitable for publication as an Indian Standard without deviations. Certain terminologies and conventions are, however, not identical to those used in Indian Standards.Attention is particularly drawn to the following:

a) Wherever the words ‘International Standard’ appear referring to this standard, they should be read as ‘Indian Standard’.

b) Comma (,) has been used as decimal marker, while in Indian Standards, it is current practice to use a full point (.) as the decimal marker.