Today, having normal color vision or being colorblind, plays a big part in our educational system. We not only have to learn our colors but color-enhanced instructional materials  have become common place throughout the classroom. To see a sample of color-enhanced instructional material (click here). It is important that the educational system and parents understand the special needs of color deficient children and what can be done to help them in their quest to learn.

For some color deficient individuals, the names red, orange, yellow, and green are simply different names for the same color. The same is true for violet, lavender, purple, and blue. Among the colors most often confused are pink/gray, orange/red, white/green, green/brown, blue green/gray, green/yellow, brown/maroon, and beige/green. Pastels and muted tones are difficult to distinguish. The color vision defect may be so bad that the affected person cannot distinguish brown socks from green socks, a red traffic light from an amber one, or green grass from brown soil by color alone.

Examples of how the condition can cause problems at school.

1.  John is working in his reading workbook. The directions to one  item say to draw a line to the red ball. The other ball is brown. Both colors look alike to John, so he guesses. The teacher reminds him not to be careless.
2.  A teacher is writing vocabulary words on a green chalk board with yellow chalk in mid-afternoon. There is a glare on the board from unshaded windows. Peter is sitting so that the glare diminishes the figure-ground contrast. The teacher wonders why he is copying from a neighbor's paper.
3.  Tommy ordinarily seems to enjoy reading aloud. Today, however, he doesn't volunteer and balks when the teacher calls on him to read. The poem in the reader is printed in blue on a purple background.
4.  Susan, a bright and articulate youngster, was asked to go to the front of the class and read from the blue green book on the teachers' desk.  She went to the front of  the class and  just stood there looking at the pile of different colored books. Not knowing which one to pickup, she started to cry.
5.  T.J. was very out going in pre-school & kindergarten. He loved to wave his arms and volunteer to answer questions the teacher asked. The only time he did not volunteer answers was when it came to learning or identifying his colors. A lot of the colors looked the same to him. They just had different names.
6.  The kindergarten teacher notices the kids during art class teasing Jimmy.  The other kids think it is funny that Jimmy's stick people have green faces.

Color Normal                Color Deficient

(source: critiquewall.com by Paul Martin)

7.  The kids at school told the teacher Jeff was cheating during kick ball.  They said he would break the rules by kicking the ball when it was out of bounds. They accusingly stated the boundary lines on the green grass were clearly marked with orange chalk. Jeff, rather than admitting he could not see the boundary line, simply quit playing with the other kids during recess.
 

Please feel free to to print or make a copy of this article for your school.

   (What is colorblindness)  (Why are you colorblind) (What teachers should know)  (A pediatric color vision test) (Evaluation of a pediatric test)  (Where to purchase a color vision test)   (How colorblind subjects see the

 world)   (Frequently asked  questions)   (Other helpful links)