Pre-Employment Vision Testing
Does your business require that candidates and employees take vision tests? Not all companies do. A potential employee's eyesight is extremely important for certain occupations, such as medical workers, those in transportation, and people who operate heavy machinery or who must make critical decisions. The general rule when deciding if your company should require an eye exam for applicants is: would vision impairment put anyone's safety at risk? If the answer is "yes," then comprehensive vision testing should be mandatory.
There are two types of pre-employment eye evaluations — pre-job offer, and post-job offer. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provides strict regulations on what kind of pre-employment vision exam an employer can require, and when. At Health Street, we offer four kinds of visual exams — Ishihara, Jaeger, Snellen and Titmus. They each test different aspects of sight. Our cloud based StaffGlass software lets you order, track and manage health screenings for your applicants and employees.
How Health Street and StaffGlass Makes Pre-Employment Vision Tests Easy
StaffGlass is an integrated recruiting and onboarding tool designed for our business clients. In addition to being able to order an exam for a job candidate, check status and view results securely from an easy-to-use dashboard, you can also schedule other employment testing, such as a drug test and a complete physical, as well as background check services. If the applicant is hired, this data becomes their permanent record, and you can schedule and track subsequent employment screenings for all your employees, monitoring their health status throughout their time working for your organization.
Advantages of our recruiting and onboarding solution include:
Sign up for an employer account and order pre-employment vision tests and other screenings for your job applicants. Get started today!
What is a Pre-Employment Eye Test?
To ensure that a job applicant will be able to perform their duties, an employer may conduct an eye evaluation. However, they are restricted as to when they can ask about a vision impairment and when they can require a medical evaluation. For more sensitive positions, having an applicant tested prior to employment can reduce the chance of accidents and potential company liability.
Legal Regulations Regarding Eye Exams for Job Applicants
There are two specific times when you, as an employer or hiring manager, can require an eye test of an applicant. One is before you make a job offer and the other is after you make the offer. The ADA, which prevents employers from discriminating against qualified people with disabilities, provides guidelines as to when an employer can mandate an eye examination from a potential employee.
Before the job offer, you can give applicants an eye test, so long as it is not medical. This means that you can conduct a test that determines if they can distinguish objects or read labels or signs, but only if it directly relates to the job. After you have made a conditional job offer, you can require them to have a visual evaluation that is conducted by an optometrist or ophthalmologist.
The Different Types of Eye Examinations
There are four different types of eye exams that we offer at Health Street, to accommodate different company requirements for job candidates. They are the Snellen chart, Ishihara test, Jaeger chart and Titmus vision screener. A person's eyes can be tested using an eye chart or a machine.
Snellen Chart
This is the most widely recognized eye chart, typically with 11 rows of letters printed at increasingly smaller sizes as they go down to the bottom row. This standard chart is a visual acuity test that is used to indicate the smallest letters a person can read from approximately 20 feet away. Eyes are tested one eye at a time.
Ishihara Test
This eye test checks for color blindness, for those who must be able to recognize and distinguish colors. A person is asked to read numbers that are within different sizes of circles filled with various solid colors.
Jaeger Chart
Used for those who must be able to read small print up-close, this exam determines visual acuity. Text in different sizes is printed on a card, and the person being tested holds it at a certain distance and tries to read it.
Titmus Vision Screener
This evaluation checks for eye sharpness. It uses a machine to test a person's near and distance vision, eyesight through binoculars (both eyes together), peripheral vision and color perception. This may vary according to the occupation.
Vision Tests and Physicals
Is a vision test included in a pre-employment physical exam? A standard non-DOT physical examination typically only includes a basic vision acuity test. However, a DOT physical, required by the Department of Transportation for drivers with a commercial driver's license (CDL), includes a complete vision test.
What Tests are Done During an Eye Exam?
You can choose from the following Health Street eye tests: Ishihara, Jaeger, Snellen and Titmus, depending upon your company's needs. They check for color blindness, near vision acuity, distance visual acuity and eye sharpness.