My friend has a Deytan M-cone color blindness. He can't tell a green t-shirt from a red one. Still he will argue about the color... Sometimes he will just insist a red t-shirt is green, until I get more people to convince him I am right. :)This helps to understand the problem a bit. Thanks.
Actually, the fact that traffic lights are in different positions (it's red on top, yellow in middle, green on bottom - when I can see them) doesn't always help.It's not always as easy as "The bottom one is bright, so that is green". I'm colorblind, and at a certain time of day, the traffic lights will look like they're all unplugged, and none of the lights are lit. If you have normal color vision, have you noticed that sometimes during the day a traffic light will look more dim? Well for a severely colorblind person they don't just look dim, they look like none of them are lit.If I'm with passengers I sometimes have to ask what color the traffic light is (which scares the hell out of everyone). If I'm driving alone I have to slow down and watch other cars. I'm sure there have been several times when there are no other cars to watch that I've inadvertently run a red light. Note that only during a certain time of day and certain lighting conditions will the traffic light look like it's off to me (and if I have passengers they can confirm that it's lit). Hopefully if you have normal color vision you can avoid my car speeding though the red lights (although I try to approach cautiously if I'm alone and the lights look unplugged).The problem with traffic lights is they were designed before color blindness was fully understood. Green and red are the worst colors to choose, because those are the most common colors that are impacted by color blindness. But it's too late to change them now, can you imagine the mayhem if they suddenly tried to change all lights to blue means go? They have added other colors into most lights (added blue into the green and yellow into the red) to try to make them more bright for color blind people.It really is a problem when you consider that 12% of the male population is colorblind; Although I think that most are not nearly as severe as I am. I wish there was a better solution - I try to be overly safe, but honestly maybe I shouldn't be driving (at least around noon). But I think if you were me you can understand that it's a difficult proposition.
For the longest time my mom would mark my clothes on the inside so I knew what shirts and pants went together. I still cant get my sock situation right. Blue looks black and black looks blue.
I used to have a nosy boss that would look over my shoulder to see what I was doing. He was colorblind so I decided to change my colors (back in the DOS days, mind you) to green on red. They were both the same intensity so all he saw was gray. It drove him NUTS!Good times... Good times...
Nice and interesting article!I'm kind of colorblind myself but I don't really see things in a different way. It's only difficult for me to reed red letters on a dark green background.
The percentage of color deficient people are probably underestimated by a great degree. For example, I had no idea that I was Protan until I joined the Army. You are required to take a color vision test. You look at 13 palets and identify the numbers in the plate. Well, I could only see 3 of the numbers. I was shocked. I suspect there are a lot of people with color vision deficiencies that simply have no idea that they don't see color normally. By the way, people that have a red-green deficiency can see color. It just makes it difficult to distinguish between similar colors. For example, I probably can't see the difference between dark brown and dark green.
What...just the multicolored "Google" logo? The nice thing is, it is all about perception. I think I see the Google logo just fine (and I do see most of the colors fine). I can even tell that the l is green and the e is red. I suppose the upper and lower case Gs might be purple and blue though. They both look blue to me. Anyway, my point is, if you've been driving a Honda Accord your whole life, you think it is a fine car. You're used to it. If you but a Mercedes S600 driver behind the wheel they'll wonder how you stand it. Still, I am curious to know what it'd be like to see through "normal" eyes. Also, I'm not sure how valid this test is. They merely replace colors with other colors and say "this is what color blind people see". It really isn't- it is only highlighting what colors we don't pick up on for you. You could do the same thing with a colorblidn person. If someone is red/green colorblind, you could just replace red with yellow and green with blue and say "this is what someone with normal color vision sees". Of course, it isn't. It only highlights the differences we were missing.
jessejMay 9, 2006
My friend has a Deytan M-cone color blindness. He can't tell a green t-shirt from a red one. Still he will argue about the color... Sometimes he will just insist a red t-shirt is green, until I get more people to convince him I am right. :)This helps to understand the problem a bit. Thanks.
nitrospyderMay 9, 2006
Actually, the fact that traffic lights are in different positions (it's red on top, yellow in middle, green on bottom - when I can see them) doesn't always help.It's not always as easy as "The bottom one is bright, so that is green". I'm colorblind, and at a certain time of day, the traffic lights will look like they're all unplugged, and none of the lights are lit. If you have normal color vision, have you noticed that sometimes during the day a traffic light will look more dim? Well for a severely colorblind person they don't just look dim, they look like none of them are lit.If I'm with passengers I sometimes have to ask what color the traffic light is (which scares the hell out of everyone). If I'm driving alone I have to slow down and watch other cars. I'm sure there have been several times when there are no other cars to watch that I've inadvertently run a red light. Note that only during a certain time of day and certain lighting conditions will the traffic light look like it's off to me (and if I have passengers they can confirm that it's lit). Hopefully if you have normal color vision you can avoid my car speeding though the red lights (although I try to approach cautiously if I'm alone and the lights look unplugged).The problem with traffic lights is they were designed before color blindness was fully understood. Green and red are the worst colors to choose, because those are the most common colors that are impacted by color blindness. But it's too late to change them now, can you imagine the mayhem if they suddenly tried to change all lights to blue means go? They have added other colors into most lights (added blue into the green and yellow into the red) to try to make them more bright for color blind people.It really is a problem when you consider that 12% of the male population is colorblind; Although I think that most are not nearly as severe as I am. I wish there was a better solution - I try to be overly safe, but honestly maybe I shouldn't be driving (at least around noon). But I think if you were me you can understand that it's a difficult proposition.
bangeloMay 9, 2006
For the longest time my mom would mark my clothes on the inside so I knew what shirts and pants went together. I still cant get my sock situation right. Blue looks black and black looks blue.
culbedaMay 9, 2006
I used to have a nosy boss that would look over my shoulder to see what I was doing. He was colorblind so I decided to change my colors (back in the DOS days, mind you) to green on red. They were both the same intensity so all he saw was gray. It drove him NUTS!Good times... Good times...
icedragonMay 9, 2006
Nice and interesting article!I'm kind of colorblind myself but I don't really see things in a different way. It's only difficult for me to reed red letters on a dark green background.
ddalesMay 10, 2006
The percentage of color deficient people are probably underestimated by a great degree. For example, I had no idea that I was Protan until I joined the Army. You are required to take a color vision test. You look at 13 palets and identify the numbers in the plate. Well, I could only see 3 of the numbers. I was shocked. I suspect there are a lot of people with color vision deficiencies that simply have no idea that they don't see color normally. By the way, people that have a red-green deficiency can see color. It just makes it difficult to distinguish between similar colors. For example, I probably can't see the difference between dark brown and dark green.
carveMay 10, 2006
What...just the multicolored "Google" logo? The nice thing is, it is all about perception. I think I see the Google logo just fine (and I do see most of the colors fine). I can even tell that the l is green and the e is red. I suppose the upper and lower case Gs might be purple and blue though. They both look blue to me. Anyway, my point is, if you've been driving a Honda Accord your whole life, you think it is a fine car. You're used to it. If you but a Mercedes S600 driver behind the wheel they'll wonder how you stand it. Still, I am curious to know what it'd be like to see through "normal" eyes. Also, I'm not sure how valid this test is. They merely replace colors with other colors and say "this is what color blind people see". It really isn't- it is only highlighting what colors we don't pick up on for you. You could do the same thing with a colorblidn person. If someone is red/green colorblind, you could just replace red with yellow and green with blue and say "this is what someone with normal color vision sees". Of course, it isn't. It only highlights the differences we were missing.
daniel312May 14, 2006
interesting..