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
I am amazed by this information. I would like the card for a friend. Thank You
I'm red/green CB as well. This sort of thing will be great to help my wife understand this better. I too have wished deeply to see what others see. There are advantages, however. For instance, we can spot artificial concealment like camo easily.
This has been found to be due to the fact that we can make much finer distinctions between shades of kaki. (I'm sure that I'm not the only one who has been told two shades of kaki are the same, when they aren't.) We can't easily use colors to navigate through life, so we become better at things like pattern recognition. It's not that we see the world differently, and so we're colorblind. It's that being colorblind forces you to see the world differently.
Thank You for posting this info. My son is color blind and so is my dad. I wish I cound identify what type of color blindness my son is so I could get a better idea of what he sees. I have seen some other sites with examples if this, and they lead me to your site. Your site and these other sites have assisted with giving me a general idea of how he may be seeing things.
I recognized my son was color blind at a young age, and was concerned whether I was teaching him the proper basic color identification. I did not want to confuse him, and get him frustrated, but wanted to teach him his basic colors, knowing that he’d have issues with certain shades. I’m sure it would get confusing as a young child trying to learn to identify colors when someone tells the child that a certain color that looks the same to them is for example green one time and then brown the next.
While I was growing up, I had a hard time imagining how someone could see any shades of Red and Green similar, when they look so different to me. Then when I found out my son was color blind and thought about it further. I realized that Red and Green are opposites on the color wheel, I forget the proper name for that. But when you combine the 2 colors together on the opposite side of the color wheel they make brown. So I thought they must be seeing different shades of brown for the most part.
I took my son to the eye doctor this week hoping to find out what type. They said he is fully color blind and would see different shades of Grey. I have a hard time believing that he’s seeing only shades of Grey. I think they gave me some bad info there. I think he’s closest to what you are showing in your pictures. I’m thinking about having him look at some of this and tell me if they look the same or similar to him. They said there is a more detailed test that can be done, but they would not recommend it until he’s about 10 years old. The doctor said they don’t really know much about it because there is no treatment for it. But, she said that she changed a bit on how she feels about it know that she’s gotten a better understanding of a parents concerns regarding it.
I like being able to read other peoples comment and experiences regarding this.
Hi Sandi,
I'm sorry to hear about your son. Indeed, there isn't a treatment for colour blindness, it's a genetic thing and if you lack the receptors in the eye there's no way to add them "back" so to speak. It would be like trying to "fix" being albino - you just can't.
If your son is red/green colour blind, please don't worry about it unduly. It's not a severe problem, in fact I know of a couple of colour blind people who are successful designers - Jon Hicks for example, who made the Firefox logo. While being colour blind is likely to seem like a "disability" to you, it's the only thing your son will know - he doesn't know what he's missing, and it's tough to miss things you have no experience of. Certainly it's not bothered anyone I know unduly, beyond being a bit of a curiosity, and with the exception of annoying technology designers using red and green lights on DVD players, it's never been a problem for me.
More can be found by reading through the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_blind
Good luck with the next set of tests
I'm severely red/green colourblind so i do not have a clue abou the difference in these pictures! I'll show my friends though and see what they think. thank you Alex
Great website…I see things exactly the way you do..I do not see any differences in any of the pictures you showed! I have a question that I can't seem to find an answer for…
I snow ski, and without goggles, I can see the differences in the terrain, but with goggles on, the differences become muted, making it dangerous because I don't see the bumps or the ledges. This occurs with pinkish lenses, and do you have any idea what color lens might help the situation.
I've read that yellow acts a blue blocker, but would this help if one is color blind?
I also was diagnosed in the first grade, when I was drawing pictures and I made hair blue (at least I think it was blue…) and the teacher thought I was doing it because I was stupid and lazy!
Thanks for the website and for any information you might be able to share.
Mike in Manahawkin NJ
I am clour blind justlike you the only sligth diffrence i found was in the pic of the people walking the guy in a red shirt seemed a bit brigther then in the first I realy dont have any trouble in the world I wouldnt call this a disability the only problem is that i can get dark brown and red pencils mixed up
funny my fav colour is red
the only time i realised somthing is when i saw the dotty find the number thing
i dont know what its like to be colour blind but i feel sorry for everyone who is!:(
I have just been reading thru your site and as I am colour blind I see zero difference in the slides you have here and find it hard to explain to people myself. Although this never stopped me getting my Private Pilot Licence, although it was harder as I had to do a test specific to runway lights and not the coloured dots or ishihara test as it is called - passed that easy as it doesn't rely on me distinguishing multi colours and shades. Another imteresting thing about colour blindness (red/green) is that as such we see more shade difference and during WW2 colour blind spotters were used to identify camouflage from the air as we can see the shade difference which is obvious to us even though a full perception person can't see it. So there are benefits. Basically we see more difference in shade but less difference in colour and that varies deoending on the degree of colour blindness.
I'm RG colour blind, but I see a much greater range of colours when I'm about to go down with 'flu. Anyone else noticed this effect?
When i was a kid… My classmates used to make fun of me because i used to draw green dogs. Im a colorblind teen and tests like these fascinate me. It makes me think im in some way special. Though sad maybe because i'll never see the world the way it is for the others… nor the others will see the world as it is for me. Anyway i can go along with that.
I am red-green colorblind also. I am actually a rare case, because I am a girl
Its really hard for me not to think about what other people see…because my case is pretty severe. It's odd and confusing to have 5 or 6 names for one color….I wonder how people see christmas…how they see trees…everything. My friends have tried to explain it to me, but you can't describe colors to a person who can't see them. My good friend has concluded that red, green, pink, and anything inbetween becomes a "puke green" color. Orange looks different to me too…kinda like brown. I can still tell the difference though 
My little brother (Now an adorable 11 year old) is pretty severely color blind. People tell me all the time "color blind people can't see color" and i tell them that I'm afraid they are a bit off. They see color, they just see it differently and not as intensely as normal people. Your little info page helped me, along with my friends to better understand that. Thanks bunches! ^-^
Hi.. first of all, i am sorry, my English isn’t good enough..
i am Asian, living in Indonesia (and colorblind also^^)
it’s so fascinating to see many people feeling about being a diffable (i disagree that colorblind is a disease. In my opinion, though it’s simply disability to see the true image of color, it’s just a different ability)..
I also realised my colorblindness while was studying at primary school. At that time, we were asked to see numbers in our dotted card. Knowing that i couldn’t see my number, i asked what number that my next friend’s had. Silly, i told my teacher the same number (though we’re having different card).. My teacher checked it, and soon told my parents..
My mother was so upset and angry to me. Knowing both of her son were colorblind persons, she had to stop dreaming that one of her son would be a doctor. (yup with my father, and my brother, definitely all males in my family are colorblind). but what could i do? I was just angry at that moment. Why my mother so upset? weren’t me who has the best right to be upset?
but life must go on.. and i try so hard to show the best of me to my parents..
i keep that spirit, and forgive my parents..
because i know, every human life is a God’s handwritten tale..
who knows, somehow, it would bring some luck for me? heheh
That is amazing. Thank you for sharing that with us. It's kind of sad that you only get to see different variations of yellow. Again, that was really cool of you to share.