What does a
Color Challenged Person See?
This is a good example of what a
red-green (most common) person would see.
Top is Normal
The colors of the rainbow as viewed by a
person with no color vision deficiencies.
The colors of the rainbow as viewed by a
person with protanopia.
The colors of the rainbow as viewed by a
person with deuteranopia.
The colors of the rainbow as viewed by a
person with tritanopia
By controlling your color display, you can simulate on the computer different
kinds of color blindness.
Problems with print and
Monitors
 | Weather forecasts - especially the Weather
Channel - where certain colors just can not be distinguished on their weather
maps. Also, maps in general because of the color coding on the legends. |
| Bi-color and tri-color LEDs (Light Emitting
Diodes): Is that glowing indicator light red, yellow, or green? |
| Traffic lights, and worst of all, Caution lights:
Color blind people always know the position of the colors on the traffic light
- in most states, Red on top, Yellow in the center, Green (or is that blue?)
on the bottom. It isn't good when we go to a city or state where they put
traffic lights horizontal - it takes a couple of days to get used to that one!
But caution lights present an entirely different problem. In this situation
there is only one light; no top or bottom, no right or left, just one light
that is either red or yellow - but which is it? |
| Getting in the sun with your girlfriend: So,
you're out in the boat or on the beach with your girlfriend and soaking up the
rays. But I can't tell until far too late if I'm getting red - or if she is.
If I can tell its red, by that time its fire engine red and painful sunburn is
already present. |
| Color observation by others: "Look at those
lovely pink flowers on that shrub". My reply, looking at a greenish shrub
"What flowers?" |
| Purchasing clothing: I've got some really neat
colors of clothes. Not everyone appreciates them like I do though; they seem
to think the colors are strange. I just don't know why! |
| Kids and crayons: Color vision deficiencies
bother affected children from the earliest years. At school, coloring can
become a difficulty when one has to take the blue crayon -and not the pink
one- to color the ocean. |
| Test strips for hard water, pH, swimming pools, etc.:
A color blind person is generally unable to :
 | interpret some chemical reactions |
| see that litmus paper turns red by acid |
| identify a material by the color of its flame such as
lead blue or potassium purple |
| Interpret the chemical testing kits for swimming pool
water, test strips for hard water, soil or water pH tests - all of which
rely on subtle color differences and a band of similar colors to compare
against. |
|
| Cooking and foods:
| When cooking, red deficient individuals cannot tell
whether their piece of meat is raw or well done. Many can not tell the
difference between green and ripe tomatoes or between ketchup and chocolate
syrup. |
| Some food can even look definitely disgusting to color
deficient individuals. For example, people with a green deficiency cannot
possibly eat spinach which to them just looks like cow pat. They can however
distinguish some citrus fruits. Oranges seem to be of a brighter yellow than
that of lemons. |
|
| Are you wearing lipstick? Many color blind people
cannot tell whether a woman is wearing lipstick or not. More difficult to
handle for some is the inability to make the difference between a blue-eyed
blonde and a green-eyed redhead. |
