How a colour blind person sees the world
I’ve heard a lot of talk recently about accessibility issues on the internet, and how that doesn’t mean catering for ‘just blind people’. That’s true, and I back what most people are saying wholeheartedly - but that’s not what this blog is about. Amidst the talk and chatter someone mentioned colour blindness, and it was only then that I realised - I’m one of these people who would benefit from Accessibility aware development.
I am red/green colour blind, the same as 8% of all white men. My colour blindness was picked up at primary school, where a frighteningly large person called small groups of children into the school office and we were given brief eye examinations. We were handed out small cards with a printed circle on, full of little random dots. We were asked to say what number was written in the circle and while my friends reeled off answers with confidence I said ‘mine doesn’t have a number’. My friends looked at me like I was playing some sort of joke. They were asked to leave, I stayed - thinking I was in trouble. For me, there was no number, because I’m colour blind. It’s something I never think about, except on the odd occasion when someone will remark about some colour and I’ll argue the colour. (Being colour blind doesn’t just mean I don’t see some colours, it also means my names for some colours are not the ones ‘full sighted’ people will use. I literally don’t see the same colour, so I name it differently).
We got to talking about it at work, and after a while trying to comprehend that I must be missing out on a whole spectrum of information and input I said to Tim - “I wish I could see the world like other people see it”. I don’t know what I’m missing, because I’ve got no grounds for comparison, and I never will know how other people see the world because colour blindness isn’t something that can be cured. What I can do however is show you how I see the world.
The following pictures use a little Photoshop plug-in to simulate my type of colour blindness. I’m not completely red/green colour blind so I’ve fiddled with the results a bit to try and get it more accurate. The pictures below are a very close simulation to how I see the world, all day, every day, everywhere. When I look at these pictures there is almost no difference at all - both the left and the right image look almost identical. If you were to cut them in half and show me one, then the other I would not be able to tell you which version you had shown me. Remember that 8% of all white men see the world like this, to a greater or lesser degree, and that in a room of 250 people (of mixed race/gender) at least 12 will be colour blind.
This is the best simulation - these are identical to me.
I picked this one because it has strong reds and greens. I can just about tell that these two are different - the red shirt Mike is wearing is very slightly duller and browner in the simulation than I see it in the ‘Full spectrum’ version, but that is the only difference I can see here, and it’s only noticeable to me when I compare these side-by-side.
I’m not singling out John Oxton’s site for any reason other than it’s the first one I thought of when I wanted to show people how I see a colourful website.
Hopefully this gives you a small peek into how I see things. It’s why I can’t see berries on holly bushes, why the orange/green safety reflectors on the backs of large lorries aren’t very noticeable to me, why I can never pilot a plane or be a police officer, and why Dad’s Technics DVD player annoys the hell out of me. The shade of green used for ‘on’ and red used for ‘off’ are close to indistinguishable for me. I hate that DVD player.
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- Thu, 30th Jun 2005 at 19:06 UTC
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skip to comment formColour blindness fascinates me. Thank you for sharing an approximation of what you see. I dated a boy (with whom I am still friends) for over two years who is red/green colour blind. He is a painter, and his art is fantastic. His names for colours are the same as mine - according to him, he sort of learned which shades he saw were called “red” and which were called “green” (the names on the tubes of paint helped :o)) I constantly questioned him about the way he saw things, trying to understand. I could go on about this, but I won’t take up your time. I just wanted to thank you and to let you know that you have inspired me to look further into this interesting subject.
Great entry, really interesting. I have a lecturer who is colour blind and he used to show us a lot of the cards you described being shown at primary school.
This is fascinating stuff. I barely mention colour-blindness in my Web accessibility training, beyond noting a few combinations known to be problematic: red/black, red/green, beige-orange-yellow/red-green. It’s fascinating to read about and see the issues you encounter everyday. We all know that we shouldn’t use colour alone to convey information, but it’s hard to account for sometimes.
Nice to meet you the other day, by the way.
I’m glad you are all finding it interesting.
People often assume that being red/green colour blind means I will not know the difference between what is red and what is green. People will immidiatly point to a bright red object and ask me the colour, then seem surprised when I always answer correctly. Colour blindness (for me) doesn’t work like that. I can tell most shades of red from most shades of green - the problem is the way my visual spectrum is ‘muted’, and so when the shades start getting closer together I lose the ability to distinguish between them. I have a very hard time distinguishing certain -shades- of colour (red, orange, brown, green) because they all start looking the same at certain points in the spectrum. A primary red and primary green are obviously different, but I’d class the two as being a lot more similar than primary blue and primary green.
Trying to imagine that red and green are in fact as contrasting as blue and green blows my mind - I can’t visualise it.
More information on colour blindness can be found on the Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_blind
Owen - it was nice to meet you too, it’s good to see people who’re genuinely interested in Accessibility.
Cool blog entry dude, iv just been sitting here for 10 mins trying to get my brain around it,lol. Fascinating stuff, its almost like looking at the world in sepia vision (that the right word?) ya know when ya can set digital camera to take old fashioned sepia photos, all the colours on Matt Vision look like that to me, very cool *starts reading wikipedia*
“Trying to imagine that red and green are in fact as contrasting as blue and green blows my mind - I can’t visualise it.”
-Obviously you can’t visualise it, silly. :o) (Although I know what you mean.) I’m sure you’ve heard this, but I’ll say it anyway. Red and green are actually opposite each other on the colour wheel, and, when put next to each other (especially involving text), to most non-colour blind people they will appear to vibrate at the edges, or have the illusion of raised text. This is true of other colour opposites as well (blue/orange, violet/yellow…), but since both orange and violet have red in them I wonder if this would be noticed by someone who is less sensitive to red? Maybe more of a blue-violet and a yellow would work? Not than any of this matters in the least to you, but now you’ve got me going. I will have to perform experiments on my friend. :o)
i’ve red/green colour deficient vision too - can’t even see a difference between the left and right images in the examples you show above - I sent around a bunch of similar images to the guys at work a while back (i work with designers at a agency) and they were all amazed at how different they were, but that I couldn’t see it.
i’ve been fascinated with colour vision since i found out i had problems (when i was a kid), although i’ve never really been that affected by it (although it did scupper my dreams of being a pilot
I am red/green colorblind.I was doubtful in my school days that wheather i was color blind or not as didnt had any test before.I became aware of it just a few days back when i cleared my interviews and everything for becoming an army officer in Indian army.In the last day of my medical i came to know that i m colorblind and was declared unfit for all armed forced Army ,Navy , Airforce,Police and some more.It is really breaking moment for me but cant help it friends as there is no cure for it .
Life never stops neither do I
Those of us who have this disease ,its just a hard luck
I'm sorry you can't do what you've been wanting to. Fortunately for myself I've no desire to be in the forces. It's interesting that colour blindness is one of the most common disabilities for men in the western world, but it's also one that most people completely dismiss and don't realise can be limiting on those that are colour blind.
As a side note, it's a genetic defect rather than a disease - which is why it's not curable.
Wow, what an amazing insight. I am a science tacher at a UK secondary school (is this site in the UK?) and stumbled upon your site while planning a lesson on light and colour. The examples you show on your site are amazing. I will let you know if the kids like them too.
David.
Hi David,
Yes indeed, this is a UK site; I'm English, but living in Wales.
Thanks, I hope the kids learn a little bit from this
I am absolutly blown away! I was diagnosed with CB at a young age, but i refused to belive it. I would not belive it because i took it for its litteral name. I belived that if i was colorblind i would only be able to see GRAY and i could see plenty of colors. I have told friends that i am color blind and like you say they point and say "Whel than what color is that?". Every time i could see the color. Needless to say that got old so i stopped telling people because then agai i really dident belive it myself>>> UNTILl today!!! I have looked at your pictures and done many tests online today and i cant figure out wheater you people are lying to me or if its really TRUE! I cannot see the numbers in these dotted circles nor the difference in your pictures. I am overwhelmed with the thought that there is a world of color that i am missing, but then again how would i know. I am happy to have found your site for now i will know how to explaine myself next time.
P.S. What is your favorite colour? Mine is what i tend to call BLUE. HA HA
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