Dear Sir,
My name is Patrick Blonk, I’m from the Netherlands. At about the age of 8 I was tested to see if I was colourblind and I was. This test was a regular test during primary school, my parents were unaware of the problem. I read some (not all) of the stories sent in by parents of colourblind children. I’d like to give some comment on them.
First of all I’d like to say that the stories I read on your website, written by parents of colourblind children, were very familiar to me. I recognized a lot. When you’re a child, and parents are not aware that colourblindness is / was present in their family / families, parents are equally unaware that their child may be colourblind. This may lead to some misunderstanding of the problem when the child has been diagnosed as being colourblind. My mother, for instance, thought it was her ‘fault’, as the pediatrician told us it was most likely that the colourblindness was present in her family (which is correct). Almost all of my (male) cousins are colourblind, they all have a mother who is a sister of my mother’s.
Colourblindness in early childhood may easily be interpreted as the child not being able to give colours the names they have. My parents thought I was a slow learner, as I wore socks of mixed colours (blue and gray) every time I took them out of the wardrobe myself. The thought that I might be colourblind never occurred to them. I do not blame them for it, they just didn’t know.
I have been a teacher (secondary education) for 15 years now. Every new school year I inform my learners that I am colourblind. In these past 15 years one thing has remained the same all the time. Learners do not understand colourblindness, but want to know. I explain them that I understand why they cannot understand. If you put your hands before your eyes, you understand blindness. If you put your hands on your ears, you understand deafness. But you cannot not see colours if you do see colours neither can you not give the incorrect names to colours if you can see colours.
Colourblind or not?
On your site I read a story about a woman whose son was diagnosed with colourblindness after failing a colourblindness test, but he gave all the right names of the colours when she went home and asked him what colours different things had. I understand that she thought that either he failed the test on purpose or that the test result was not correct, but as a colourblind person I can say something about it. For me, there have been 2 tricks with which I learned (and am still learning) colours for different things;
– The first trick, and the most successful, is that I remembered what people said what colour a specific object had. When you are in a familiar surrounding (your house), you will hear other people say what colour goes with what thing. So, what you do is simply remember what colour was given to an object. You yourself, however, do not see this. You just remember what had been said about it. Anybody will learn that the sky is blue, clouds are white, grass is green and so on, and so on.
– The second trick (for me at least) is to try to guess what degree of grayness a specific object has. I do see colours to some degree (shades of gray) and I am therefore able to guess what colour it may be. This is, however, dependent on how ‘light’ or ‘dark’ an object is. I use a simple technique: if it is ‘light’ it will be either green, yellow or orange. If it is ‘dark’ it may be red, brown, blue or black. I obviously make mistakes, but to the surprise of many, I do guess right many times, about 5 times out of 10 I guess right. So if this mother is astonished by the fact that her son got all the colours correct at home, my guess is that her son uses the same tricks as I do.
Everyday problems
If your child is colourblind, he/she will encounter problems. But fewer than you might think. I will give you some examples;
– Asking/showing the way has always been and will always be a problem. If you ask the way to somebody, chances are that he will search for an object with a colour that is easily recognizable as ‘standing out’ compared with the rest. For colourblind people it will (probably) not be the case.
– A colourblind person does not understand why colour A does not match with colour B.
– Watching sports on television. The colours on T-shirts are sometimes confusing for colourblind persons, they appear to be the same. The consequence being that a colourblind person cannot tell which player belongs to which team.
– Reading in class. When writing on a blackboard / whiteboard a teacher should be aware that some colours cannot be used on a specific board. Being colourblind myself I know what colours to evade. But writing in green/red/brown on a blackboard is either very hard or simply impossible to read. The same goes for yellow / pink on a whiteboard. This is of course dependent on what kind of colourblindness a person has, but certainly the blackboard will cause problems.
– Playing board games. For a colourblind person it is almost impossible to tell the difference between pieces. I always chose the yellow one, as it is the one that stands out, as normally you have a yellow, a blue, a brown and a black piece. Troubles arise when you have yellow, green, orange, blue, red, brown and black.
– The Internet. It is the same as in class, a site has a background colour and a colour in which a text is written. If they belong to the same group, colourblind people will have difficulties.
– Maps. Especially underground railway maps and maps with an equally coloured pattern.
– There is no cure. Either you have it when you’re born or not. I have had to explain this all my life.
But
– Traffic lights are no problem, although almost every non-colourblind person seems to think so. You learn where red and green are, even if you cannot tell the difference.
– Mentioning of colours by non-colourblind people. My learners are always ashamed when they talk about or refer to colours when they are talking with me. That is not a problem. Colourblind people understand that other people will talk ‘in colours’, as they can see colours. It’s the same with blind people I guess. They understand that people who can see, will use phases such as:”You see what I mean?”.
Final remark
Although I understand completely why people want to ‘test’ me after I have said that I am colourblind, but I do admit that it is getting on my nerves that people immediately start asking the question:”What colour has that object?”. Please people, if your child is colourblind try to avoid this question. Tell other people not to ask the question. Every time people ask me this question I feel like a liar.
Yours sincerely,
Patrick Blonk
From R.S.
I wanted to add my thanks to the many others for this website. My brother and I tested red-green colorblind as very young children. I’m told we’re both fairly severely colorblind (I usually get about 2 out of 15 correct on color tests), but I have to say it has never really gotten in my way. Most people find it kind of fascinating, and they always have to hold up an apple or marking pen and say “what color is this?”
I do all kinds of work that requires color vision–my degree is in film, I do many video projects, as well as graphic design, website and computer application screen design, and print layout, and am an artist too. Here’s the two best pieces of advice I have for others who find being colorblind limiting or frustrating.
First, I always partner up with a color-sighted person (usually a woman) on projects when it comes to palette selections, matching colors, picking icon color schemes, etc. I’ve never tried to hide my color deficiency, so everyone knows looking at one of those PMS color swatches with 8 zillion color choices is just too overwhelming. But once colors are selected, the numeric value virtually ensures everyone is working from the same palette.
The ABSOLUTE BEST, most helpful tool that has literally transformed my design ability is the (click on the name) WhatColor software for which I found the link on your website. I can’t say enough about how much this has helped me (I even went back to your website and looked at the color test with it–great tool!). It’s free to download and test, and to buy a ligit copy is a whopping $8. I’d highly encourage all colorblind people who use a computer to give it a try.
I, like many of the others who’ve written you, also refer people to your website regularly. I love the page that shows how color blind people see the world. For me, each of the photos side by side are practically indistinguishable, but it’s always a kick to hear the gasps come out of their mouths. Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t know what I’m missing. But hey, at the end of the day, even a black and white TV is better than no TV at all.
Thanks for the site, and the forum for colorblind people to share stories. I found them all worth reading.
From Linda:
Thank you so much for your site. I especially enjoyed reading stories from other “color confused” people. I am a supervisor at work and required to review color coded reports much to my dismay. I have to have someone tell me the color and I hand write on the printout what the color is so I can follow along in the meetings.
I also had challenges with traffic lights before they changed them out to the new LED larger sized lights. Often I simply couldn’t tell if the light was on or not.
Now my own unique story: I lived in the always bright and sunny Texas for many years. My 9 year old son and I had just bought new sunglasses at a corner store. I bought the ones with the yellow tint. Off we went driving down the road in fairly heavy traffic and as we approached the traffic light I could not see even the ‘new and improved lights’ At All. It was so bright out that I couldn’t take off the yellow sun glasses so I had to rely on my young son to tell me what color the light was. I asked him three or more times, “What color is the light!” He said it was green and we drove through without mishap, thankfully. Lesson learned… colorblind people should never wear yellow sunglasses.
Thank you again for your site.
From Al:
Thank you for an excellent site. My color blindness was identified in elementary school, when I held up wrong color crayons when being taught color identification.
Years ago, I tried the X-Chrome lens and found it useful for driving and for identifying color codes on electric wires. The red lens made red colors appear MUCH brighter and green colors appear darker, more dim. By comparing the differing view from each eye, I was able to distinguish many more wire colors than without the lens. I stopped using the red lens when I returned to wearing glasses, because I needed to wear safety glasses at work.
I am red/green color blind and my major problem with driving was that the red light on old traffic signals looked very dim in comparison to the yellow and green lights. The green light appeared to be a dirty white. The yellow is distinctive. The new traffic lights with larger, brighter red light is much easier to see. With the old, dim light, it was difficult to tell in bright glare conditions, if the red light was on, or if the traffic light was dead and no light was on. I have driven over 40 years without an accident.
I was able to get a private pilot license, but restricted to not fly under color signal control.
From S.H.
I found your website very interesting. I am 14 years old, female, and at school in the UK. I’ve always known I was colourblind, and thought this may be an interesting way to see how colour blindness affects your daily life.
I remember in junior school we were drawing snowmen and I put in a purple sky, which others seemed to find quite funny.
Whenever I buy some new pencils or pens I have to ask my family what colours they are then put labels on them, or I end up having houses with green bricks or lakes with purple water.
I have been told I cannot become a bus driver when I am older because I may not be able to tell the difference between the red, amber and green traffic lights.
I remember knitting something and a ball of wool I wanted was on the other side of my mother – so I asked her to pass me “the greeny, browny, greyey, pinky, bluey wool next to you”. There was a whole pile next to her, and of course she didn’t have a clue which one I meant!
My dad is colour blind too, and we once spent quite a while trying to pick up hazelnuts that we had accidentally spilled on our red (or green or brown) carpet. No one else was in at the time, or we would have asked for their help! We found hazelnuts on the floor for a while afterwards!
It’s often a problem in art, when we have to copy a painting – I cant tell what colour something is in the painting, and then in the tray – so a painting homework often turns into a social occasion with me asking what colour things are and my family telling me which paint to use!
Another problem is that I cant tell if bread of cheese is moldy – the ‘green’ mould is the same colour (or similar) to the ‘brown’ bread or yellow cheese.
In biology and chemistry we are sometimes supposed to note the colour changes in a chemical, but this is very difficult – especially when sometimes I don’t even see a change!
We have some temporary classrooms on our school’s front field (a part of the school was destroyed by a fire) which when they first arrived I thought they were pink when they were actually grey. A friend said “they must look much nicer in your eyes then”, but they don’t, because I haven’t seen them any other way. And it was more of a case of me not knowing what colour they were and guessing it was pink (the best word I could use to describe the colour).
From av8r5300@gateway.net
Great site. Just wanted to share my story in the hopes that it would help anyone with a color deficiency trying to earn a pilot’s license. (in the U.S.)
I’ve known about my color deficiency since an eye exam when I was 16. (I’m now 32.) It was never really an issue, except for the occasional ribbing, until I started training for my private pilot’s license four years ago. After about 12-15 hours of flight training and many hours of studying, I was told that I was ready to make my first solo flight. However, the school where I was training, and the FAA regulations, required me to pass my FAA physical before this would happen.
I had taken the color tests in the past and have always failed. When I went for my exam, no surprise, I failed. On my student pilot’s certificate the doctor entered the standard restriction for someone with deficient color vision: “Not valid for night flying or by color signal control.” This meant that not only could I not fly at night or by light gun signals, but the flight school would not let me solo.
Fortunately, the doctor knew that you can petition the FAA to take a special practical test, and if you pass, the restriction would be removed. So after filling out the application and waiting about 2 months, (flying only with an instructor) I took the test-which consisted of standing with an FAA official about 200 yards from the control tower while the controllers flashed the red, green, and white lights (used for communication when you have a radio failure) I had to tell the FAA official what each color was and whether or not it was blinking. After about 20 or so flashes, getting 100% correct, I passed the test. I was issued a Statement Of Demonstrated Ability (S.O.D.A) that is attatched to my medical certificate. In effect, it is a waiver that negates the limitations listed on the medical certificate due to deficient color vision. This S.O.D.A. is valid for life, providing the condition remains the same.
Keep in mind that this is for a Class III medical certificate, which means that if I decide to get a commercial license, I will need a Class I or II medical certificate and may have to repeat the test or take an entirely different test. (I’m working on that now, I’ll let you know.)
If any one has any questions regarding this process feels free to contact me. My email address is av8r5300@gateway.net
Story from K.D.
I just read your web site about colorblindness. I’m a 62 year old male who discovered I was colorblind when I was in 10th grade. I found the little circles with numbers in them in my Biology book. The numbers didn’t match, but the caption did tell me what a colorblind person would see. I shared this information with my mother and she commented that explained why I colored things so differently when I was younger. She did get me checked out by an optometrist . I was diagnosed with a weak red/green colorblindness. I can see solid color objects, but blends are up for grabs.
In college, I had wanted to major in chemistry, but I soon found out that my color vision wasn’t going to allow that. However, I did graduate with a broad General Science major with a minor in Math. I became a teacher. I was in the public school classroom for 38 years teaching Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Physical Science, Earth/Space Science, and Human Anatomy and Physiology. It was always amusing to the students when I would tell them something was blue and it was some other color. I would then have to explain about colorblindness. Of course, I would go through the questions of ‘What color is this”? It was fun on my part and a teaching moment for my students.
At teacher in-service’s, they would always say get out the salmon, peach, or some other “odd” color. I would have to ask a colleague which paper to get out. Later in life, I would always make comments about making them more friendly to us color handicapped individuals. I don’t know if anyone really listened or thought I was being a smart ass. Some of those workshop/in-services were worthless anyway.
About driving, I know I have run a few red lights when the sun was at the right angle and caused the glass on stop light to reflect just right and make it appear to be green when it was actually still red. I watch the traffic carefully at those times of the day in case It is red.
Being colorblind has made my life interesting. I agree that schools need to diagnose colorblind students, and they should be tested. I would agree with those who say that colorblindness is a disability. But, like all disabilities, you can get by if you really want to. I have found it t be humorous on occasion by making fun of it about myself. Its all part of educating the people around you. If you feel this may useful for any reason and wish to post any or all on your web site, you have my permission.
Story from Iowa:
I really appreciated your website. The information & tests were excellent. I wanted to share a couple “colorblind” stories with you. I am a 28 year old male from Iowa. My maternal grandfather was colorblind & I inherited it. The first time my parents realized I was colorblind was when I was 3. We were in the car driving past a farm (imagine that in Iowa), & I said, “Hey, Mom, look at those green cows!” They were lying in the grass & I couldn’t (still can’t) distinguish the green & brown. I also have a very hard time with some blues & greens, blues & purples, oranges & greens, reds & browns. I hated Social Studies in Jr. High. I never could color the maps right. Flashing red or amber stoplights really keep me guessing at night. I have learned to guess & match colors pretty good, but recently l have encountered another problem. I am a father of a two year old boy who isn’t colorblind. He is learning his colors & half the time I’m not sure whether he is right or wrong. I never tell him the color of something unless it is very obvious because I do not want to confuse him.
M.R.
I just found your website about color blindness. I’m surprised at some of the comments people wrote to you worrying about their child’s color deficiency.
I suppose some people’s vision is pretty bad and things can be traumatic for them. I had a boss one time that was completely monochromatic who liked to use awful colors on his powerpoint presentations, and we had to suggest to him to stick with greys.
As for me, I am pretty typically mildly red-green colorbind. I never knew this until I was granted an NROTC scholarship. I went in for my physical and failed the color vision test, probably the farnsworth you describe on your website. I wasn’t allowed in the Navy but the Marine Corps snapped me up. I was devastated at the time because all my youth was directed at becoming a navy officer. In retrospect, it was the best thing to ever happen to me. I can’t imagine not having been a Marine for these past 20-some years.
So, sometimes things work out for the better. I haven’t seen a single real experience where color played any significant role.
Otherwise, I have a car that others say is purple, but I adamantly insist is blue.
Being color blind for me is hardly traumatic. It got me a better military career and I don’t have to admit that I have a purple car.
It’s a win-win
L.Y.
Just a quick note to let you know what happened to me. I went to take a Commercial Drivers Licenses (CDL) physical exam in the state of Florida, USA. I have a color deficiency, so seeing the numbers in the circles doesn’t work for me. The technician said not to worry that sometime people have problems and that is why they use the “color bar”. This was a piece of wood with five colors on it, . She asked me to tell her what colors I saw, which I did and passed. When my wife went to get her CDL physical the technician pointed to the colors and asked what the color was. Either way, this test can be passed if a person has a minimal color deficiency. The CDL physical exam states that all a person has to be able to do is to distinguish Red, Green and Amber. I hope this information is helpful to others.
ANONYMOUS:
I found your web site very interesting. I first realized I had a color deficiency when I was informed the grass in my coloring book was red when it should have been green. I did not have an actual test until I was about 35 and was looking at these images where I didn’t see many of the images. In fact I got 15 out of 16 wrong. I am now 51 and have learned to adjust. Co-workers find it “funny” and interesting when I mistaken colors for clothing or any other object.
One entry on your site referred to the traffic light colors. I have found that to be the worse problem and like him, I have just memorized where they are. With clothing, you buy one brand of blue pants, and a different brand of black. In the morning, they can look alike, but that may be true for everyone. With this method you do have to remember which clothes have which colors. I also find that marking the back of ties and or waist bands in pants to be helpful.
Since I went to school in the days of black boards, the white chalk was never a problem. But now with white boards and mutli-colored markers, the red/green, or blue/purple color schemes can be a problem. I now inform the instructor of the problem and they normally will not include one of these colors. The instructors were never aware of these types of problems. Thanks again.
K.M . I first learned that I was color blind when I was in second grade. I’m pretty sure that my mom had it in for me because she bought me socks that confused me all the time. There was brown, dark, dark red, black and navy blue. Guess how many times I went to school with a brown and red or blue and black “matching” pair of socks. Very embarassing for a7 yr. old. I really realized it however when I was about 11. I had a “red” shirt that I swore was black. Mom asked what I was going to wear and I said my tan pants and black shirt. Mom asked, “`What black shirt?” I said “That black crushed velvet shirt.” (It was the seventies. And no, Elvis wasn’t on it.) We proceeded to have an argument over what color this shirt was. She won. I really haven’t had too many problems in life. When I applied for a job at Sears I told them I wasn’t going to work in the paint dept. because I was slightly color blind. There are other stories but this is long enough. Thanks for your site. It’s really informative.
K.J.H. – Thank you for your website. I found that I became color deficient after losing my sight, due to MS. When I regained my sight, my color vision did not return 100%. Before the MS diagnosis, I was not color deficient. Now I am. But, I am grateful for what color and vision did return. Like your readers write, we can adapt. Again, thank you for your great website.
B.F. – Thanks for your excellent website, especially the section giving advice to teachers. I discovered I was colour-blind about age 5. My teacher was holding up paintings and saying how good they were. After a while, she held up one of mine. I was excited she was holding up my painting, but that excitement did not last long. She ridiculed it and me, by saying how stupid I was painting green trees with brown leaves, and pink clouds and green people. I didn’t even understand what she was talking about! She then came over, pulled me out of my chair, slapped me, and made me stand in the corner much to the delight of my class mates…
When I got home I told my Mother (who is also colour-blind). The following day she went to school with me, explained that virtually all the family is colour-blind, then slapped the teacher! (I do like my Mother)! As my brother, Mother, uncles, male cousins and so on were all colour-blind, I just thought I was normal until that day. Things are getting better, but still have a long way to go.
Any ideas what to say to people who, on discovering you’re colour-blind, then start to ask twenty questions “what colour is this – what colour is that?” and so on? Thanks again, I’ll be pointing every teacher I know to your site.
Answer: It saddened me to hear of your childhood experience. Unfortunately, “no” profession is without those who are ignorant in life..
My son, who is color deficient, says he gets that same question all the time too “What color is this?”. I told him to simply refer them to my webpage for that answer. If the person is sincere, I asked him to try and take the time to “educate” the person about color vision deficiencies.
G.S. – Reading your web site article on colorblindness describes almost exactly my own experiences. At 63, I did not have the problems in school many students seem to experience now. The problems didn’t really show up until high school Chemistry, and then not enough to be a real problem.
As you indicated with your own son, my experiences with color identification in the lower grades were considered to be a simple slowness in learning my colors. I knew all the basic colors and only had problems with shades. I got to almost 20 before my colorblindness was discovered when I tried to enlist in the Coast Guard in early 1957. Interestingly enough, in 1957 the Coast Guard was having trouble reaching its enlistment quota, and a second test allowed me to enlist. In getting discharged in 1961, I was told by the doctor giving my physical that the test I passed was not a legal test for enlistment into the Coast Guard. He was the doctor that passed me. I may be the only illegal Coast Guard veteran you ever heard of.
As your article says, I could see all the basic colors but had problems with pastels and dark colors. I still refuse to wear anything pink due to a problem my freshman year in college with wearing a pink dress shirt (I thought it was white) with a maroon necktie. My sister, who was a senior, saw it and really let me have it when we got home the following weekend. Nothing I could say made any difference since I should have known pink and maroon don’t go together. That I thought the shirt was white was an inexcusable reason for the fluff.
While I’ve not had all the problems you mentioned with traffic lights, green lights get lost in the white lights of the background, while red and amber give me no real problems; when the color changes, I can tell. On the other hand, I cannot always tell if the flashing lights coming at me are an ambulance or fire truck with red lights or a wrecker with amber so I drive as if its red. Thank goodness they went to alternating red and blue, or one red and one blue light on police cars. Flashing traffic lights can give me a problem from a distance as to being red or amber. I simply plan to stop until I get close enough to distinguish the proper color. If someone is with me, I ask for help. As a kid, I had problems with blue, violet, and lavender you mentioned.
As a college sophomore, I had so much trouble due to my unknown problem that I was failing my Chemistry Quantitative Analysts Lab work and not understanding how I could be such a klutz. By the time I realized I had a problem, I had already dropped out of school from the shame of failure.
I didn’t really try the tests you mentioned, but I’m sure that anything that will help making the discovery of partial colorblindness at a younger age will be helpful. I have a feeling if they ever start testing all children BEFORE they start school, the numbers of people with the problem may go up.
Kelly:
My son is 19 and was discovered to be color deficient when he was in 5th grade. He was, along with his class, coloring hearts for Valentine’s Day for their mothers when he colored his brown instead of red. His friends laughed at him and he threw the heart away, but he told me about it when he got home.
I have always known that I may be a carrier of the defective gene, but I was surprised to find that it took till my son was in 5th grade to find out he was color deficient. I created a home made test of colors on a paper. I drew equal shape squares on paper and colored each one with the primary colors. I then asked my son to write the color of each beside them. He chose the following.
Red=brown, Brown=red, Blue=purple, purple=blue, Green=yellow, yellow=green, grey=pink, pink=grey, He could see orange, black and white.
I then had him professionally tested and it was confirmed. My younger son, age 16, is also color deficient, yet my daughter is not. My father is color deficient.
My question is this. If there were a draft for the military, would my sons be excluded based on color deficiency?
Answer: No, He would not be excluded from the draft.
J.B. – I am a 24 year male who didn’t know he was color blind until five years ago when I went to work for the Sherwin Williams Paint Comp. Color testing is not required for employment, but when I went to match a color, I was putting a gray to a green, or a brown to a green. The reason I didn’t realize before that I was colorblind was that I see primary colors as well as anyone else. It’s only the in-between colors that give me a hard time. I can match about half of the colors that I confront everyday. It was very hard for me learning that I was color blind. I grew up with a distant pity for people with disabilities because I thought that I was “normal”, but when I realized that I had a color defect I felt everyone else looking at me with that same false empathy because they just don’t understand and never will. I am luckily a musician and am pursuing a Masters Degree, and music is luckily not color coded like the rest of the world. I have found contentment in the colors I see. I even take time now to enjoy sunsets and try to determine the different colors in rainbows. The “normal” world needs to realize that we are not useless because we are color vision deficient.
Answer: Thank you J.B. for taking the time to write. I personally have never considered being color deficient a disability, only a normal variation of the gene pool that adds variety to life.
J. W. I’m 39, and have always known that I was colour blind. The reason – my maternal grandfather was *totally* colour blind (he only ever saw the world in monochrome). The amusing thing is that even though he was in the British army before WWII, they exempted him from conscription in the war *because* of his colour blindness (so there are some compensations…).
My particular confusions: Anything red/green/brown looks the same or highly confusing (I tend to use brightness with these – there isn’t anything else). With “active” colour sources (such as monitors) I seem to add red to all colours (or is it remove red?- so cyan and white are identical, for example). Red and black are often virtually identical too (especially on monitors) – and I never could see red chalk on a blackboard at school!
I’m also bad at distinguishing between green/yellow/orange, and blue/purple/violet etc. Spectra never seem to have more than about three or four distinct colours in them (even when my wife tells me she can see seven or so distinct colours).
When I got married, my wife-to-be instructed the best man that he was to ensure that I wore matching socks on the day – he promised that he would do this. Come the day of the wedding, everything goes fine, the best man even makes an embarassing comment in his speech about making sure I had matching socks – except that later that evening Liz discovers – horror – I’m wearing one green and one brown sock (they matched to me :)).
Alternative job for colour blind individuals: My wife has been known to comment that I could probably make a fortune by using my “interesting” talent to paint highly surreal and post-modern pictures with such exciting features as green faces, purple skies and brown grass (or even exciting combinations of “identical” colours for each object). Given all the other things that people pay money for in the art world, she might even be correct 🙂
Answer: Thank you for sharing. If you are adding red to your monitor, you are probably red weak (a protan). Protans normally “increase” the brightness of red when trying to match some colors. Deutans (green weak) would add green to their monitor.
Anonymous: Excellent website. Perhaps my experience would be of interest to you.
I first suspected something was faulty with my color perception as a preschool child, but had my condition confirmed via a thorough color test during a physical exam at about age 17. Now at the age of 68, I would like to offer some of my life experience with this slight defect which may to of interest and help to others. My life has been and is enjoyable, fairly normal, with only a few diversions due to my faulty color perception. I worked as a scientist, engineer, professor, and executive. The areas that needed some attention due to my deficiency were really very few.
Life as a child with a color perception problem could be difficult if the child does not know he/she may be seeing things slightly different from others. Children can be cruel and tease such a child over his silly mistakes. Parents suspecting a child may be color blind should try to confirm this as early as possible, admit it, and it is easy for the parents and their teachers to help the child deal with it. I found it comfortable to be open with my peers, even to make some jokes about my color limitation. The other children actually seemed to enjoy helping me pick out the correct crayon, etc. and trying to understand what I was seeing. (?What does this red crayon really look like to you??) I even helped a few other boys in my classes realize that they were also color blind.
The world of science and engineering is full of color coded parts and tests which require color distinction. I have not heard of anyone being denied employment in these fields because of color blindness. However, one must train himself to be extremely cautious when working with such parts and processes. Don?t guess. Simple equipment, such as ohmmeters to check resistor values, is available in most cases to determine required values. Many chemical processes require detection of color changes to establish status. This was impossible for me. Determining material composition using a spectrograph is by definition impossible for a color blind person. Getting help from another pair of eyes with normal color distinction capability is the only answer. I found my peers always willing to graciously help.
This is perhaps the most miserable part of being color blind It is probably the most irritating because it is so easy to fix, but requires others to make the fix. As a manager I would sit in meetings being shown colored charts, bar charts, serape charts, etc., which were not very useful to me. People reporting to me learned to include cross-hatching patterns to help me distinguish bars and lines on the charts.Newspapers today are proud of their color printing technology and delight in exhibiting their capability with plots using colored lines. I have never seen anything in a newspaper or magazine, or on television, that would indicate they realize there are a group of us out here who find these presentations difficult to interpret.
The red light is on the top and the green is on the bottom, and the amber is in the middle.? This is my answer to the most frequently asked question when I tell them I am color blind. Your website does an excellent job of explaining what this is and what we see. From now on I will direct color blind questions to your site. Thank you very much.
- Handling a deficiency as a child.
- Prof1essional challenges
- Documentation
- Ordinary Life
P.J – As a testament from one colorblind person to others, don’t let the situation run your life…you can take this as a challenge and work to overcome it through communication, education, and dedication. And to my art teacher, “Thank you for challenging me.” I have come a long way since Santa got his brown suit for Christmas in 1974!
Sincerely, Paul Johnson, Gautier, Mississippi