本术语表旨在帮助需要了解报告、文章、法规和其他涉及航空安全的材料中使用的术语在特定语境下的公认含义的人员，尤其是涉及航空安全中人为因素的术语。假设术语表的一些用户熟悉航空术语，但需要有关工程中人为因素语言的信息，因为它们适用于航空安全。其他人（例如，工程师和心理学家）将对自己和相关学科的术语有相当广泛的知识，但需要对特定于航空的技术术语进行权威定义。在上述总体框架内，遵守了以下关于包含待定义术语的指南:

This Glossary is designed to serve persons who need to know the accepted meanings, within specific contexts, of the terminology used in reports, articles, regulations, and other materials dealing with aviation safety -- with particular reference to terms specific to human factors in aviation safety. It is assumed that some users of the Glossary will be familiar with the nomenclature of aviation, but will need information on the language of human factors in engineering as they apply to aviation safety. Others (for example, engineers and psychologists) will have fairly extensive knowledge of the terminology of their own and related disciplines, but will need authoritative definitions of technical terms specific to aviation.Within the foregoing general framework, the following guidelines for the inclusion of terms to be defined have been observed: