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What it's like to be color blind
- Thread starter Doctor Q
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what is it like to play video games color blind? Is it a drastic difference? Are some objectives unable to be completed?
Generally it's not too bad. Probably the hardest games are usually "casual" games like Bejeweled style games that you have to match colors... as in that's the goal. Sometimes games have very small minigames that can be hard.
It can have advantages though. I've read that colorblind people see camouflage differently and detect movement better at long distances so that can be beneficial in first person shooters. I tend to snipe in FPS's when I can and while I can't say that it's because I'm colorblind, I know when my color normal friends would watch me they would often state "How can you even know there is a guy there?"
We color blind are at a definite disadvantage for a lot of games. See my previous post for one example.
When I play board games with family members and each player has to pick a game piece by color, they let me pick one I can easily distinguish so I won't move the wrong player's piece. I have no problems with Monopoly since the game pieces are in the shapes of objects. Monopoly properties have colors that I might get confused, but they also have their names printed on them, so I'm not handicapped.
I like to play the iPhone game Dot Dot Dots, but only because it has a choice of themes and one of them doesn't require distinguishing the colors. It lets me distinguish by shape instead.
Here's the default theme, which is too hard for me and spoils the fun, and the theme I use when I play:
Attachments
Headline from last year: Driver's COLOR BLINDNESS likely cause of fiery freight train smash in Oklahoma that killed three people
The same news was reported in a less sensationally titled AP wire service story.
The train engineer had multiple eyesight problems, including glaucoma and cataracts, and had multiple eye procedures performed, but since he could no longer distinguish between red and green it's his color vision that made the headline.
It makes sense that engineers need color vision because of the existing signaling systems. If they changed those systems to not rely solely on color differentiation, then that restriction on new engineers could be lifted. But there isn't much of a colorblindness lobby to argue for change.
Deteriorating vision will always be a problem for a job that requires looking where you are going, to avoid disasters like this one. It happened in Oklahoma in 2012.
The same news was reported in a less sensationally titled AP wire service story.
The train engineer had multiple eyesight problems, including glaucoma and cataracts, and had multiple eye procedures performed, but since he could no longer distinguish between red and green it's his color vision that made the headline.
It makes sense that engineers need color vision because of the existing signaling systems. If they changed those systems to not rely solely on color differentiation, then that restriction on new engineers could be lifted. But there isn't much of a colorblindness lobby to argue for change.
Deteriorating vision will always be a problem for a job that requires looking where you are going, to avoid disasters like this one. It happened in Oklahoma in 2012.
I'm color blind. I had always noticed people told me I it colors wrong a lot with blue and purple. But really I just screw them all up. In 4th grade I found out I was color blind and what that was. Every one had to go to the nurses office and take eye test (my visions screwed up to) and then she pulled out the book of circles and dots and asked if I seen the number. I said No and she started flipping threw the book real fast and I kept saying no. We got to the end of the book and I think I seen 1 number. My dad's color blind to. My one friends told me a few years ago to just use it as a exuse to every thing. And to scream it to "Why didn't you do your homework?" IM COLOR BLIND!! I never used it in a situation like that but I use it sometimes for fun.
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I THINK you and your brother had a 100% chance of being color blind. We learned about this in 7th grade. I think girls have some xy DNA and boys have xx and girls carrie color blindness in the x but unless the y has it they are fine. But boys only have x so if they have it in one they get it. I don't know it's something like that.
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I'm almost worried to determine the extent of my colour blindness. I'd likely obsess about it.
As it stands, I can't make out the number 3 in the picture in OP's post, but I can see the reddish dots enough to make out the pattern if I strain myself.
:/
As it stands, I can't make out the number 3 in the picture in OP's post, but I can see the reddish dots enough to make out the pattern if I strain myself.
:/
Apple should know better than to use icons that change color but not shape, size, orientation, or texture. This mistake can make it harder for color blind users to recognize the information being conveyed.
In iOS if you look at either
iOS Settings: System Services screen (click for full-size image)
In iOS if you look at either
Settings -> Privacy -> Location Services
orSettings -> Privacy -> Location Services -> System Services
you'll see a legend describing purple and gray icons. They should not differ only by color. I'm surprised nobody catches errors like these during testing.iOS Settings: System Services screen (click for full-size image)
Story of the day:
It's an election day so I went to my polling place this morning. It's actually two separate polling places at one location, on opposite sides of the room. My sample ballot gave the address and also said "orange table". I knew from other people that the other polling place was designated the "green table". Two colors I usually can't distinguish.
Elections workers were stationed at both tables. I picked one of the two tables and told the check-in lady that I didn't know which table to go to because I'm color blind. I showed her the message on my sample ballot.
She pointed at the words "orange table" on my ballot and said that it says "orange" so I should go to the table with the orange tablecloth. She apparently thought that being color blind means that you can't read the names of colors, or can't tell the names of colors apart.
As I puzzled over her odd answer, she pointed in the direction of the other table, so I headed that way, doing the mental equivalent of rolling my eyes.
Elections workers were stationed at both tables. I picked one of the two tables and told the check-in lady that I didn't know which table to go to because I'm color blind. I showed her the message on my sample ballot.
She pointed at the words "orange table" on my ballot and said that it says "orange" so I should go to the table with the orange tablecloth. She apparently thought that being color blind means that you can't read the names of colors, or can't tell the names of colors apart.
As I puzzled over her odd answer, she pointed in the direction of the other table, so I headed that way, doing the mental equivalent of rolling my eyes.
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Ok that is pretty funny. Usually when people find out I'm color bind they really think that is black and white vision.
It's indeed backwards lol, but it's an interesting point. If it is only the X-gen that carries the color blindness for example and not the Y, then a boy will be colorblind, as the Y chromosome can't compensate it (it has no other X-chromosome to compensate the bad gen). Girls however have indeed XX, which means that if one X chromosome carries the color blindness, they still have a chance of not being colorblind, it the other X-chromosome is fine.
I want to add to this statistics showing that there is in general more chance for humans of having a boy than having a girl. This is because an XX (girl) sperm cell is 'longer' than an XY (boy), thus an XY sperm cell can 'swim' faster, causing statistically more boys to be born than girls.
The sum of those two tells us that there's less chance for a girl of being color blind than a boy, but that there is generally speaking more chance of having a boy than having a girl. So I think it would be interesting to see how many % of each gender is colorblind.
I think it's interesting that there is a better chance of a boy being born. The other day on uber facts I read that there are more men on the planet. Anyway the percentage of males that are color blind is 8-10%. Only .5% of females are color blind.
http://wearecolorblind.com/article/a-quick-introduction-to-color-blindness/
Thanks. I was already expecting something like this. Statistically it makes sense to me.
I'm not color blind, but I am curious what it would be like to see like that. I wonder if someday someone can invent goggles or something that can let people see things as they are perceived by color blind people, or vice versa.
It's not all that interesting...
but maybe that's because it's normal to me. But here is a page that let's you see some pictures like a colorblind individual.http://www.colourblindawareness.org/colour-blindness/colour-blindness-experience-it/
Out of the 4 pictures given, tritanopia is the only one that I can tell is different. The other 3 all look the same to me.
It's not all that interesting...
http://www.colourblindawareness.org/colour-blindness/colour-blindness-experience-it/
Out of the 4 pictures given, tritanopia is the only one that I can tell is different. The other 3 all look the same to me.
That is remarkable. Thank you for sharing
It's not all that interesting...
http://www.colourblindawareness.org/colour-blindness/colour-blindness-experience-it/
Out of the 4 pictures given, tritanopia is the only one that I can tell is different. The other 3 all look the same to me.
How awful, the photo really is full of beautiful colors of flowers. I am glad I am not color blind. That being said I think there are much worse things to be, like total blindness.
If you have perfect color vision, a pair of blublocker sunglasses or amber safety lenses could approximate the effect of certain types colorblindness. It wouldn't be nearly as pronounced, since it'd only mute some colors, rather than prevent you from perceiving them entirely, but it'd still give you a decent idea.
As for the opposite, there's no way to fake perception of a color. You'd have to physically restore the weak or missing cones in someone's eyes before they'd be able to see those colors. This has been done in animals with gene therapy, but it hasn't been attempted on people yet.
Eh. I don't think it's all that bad. There isn't as much variety, but each type of color blindness offers up its own unique sorta flavor to the world. Deuteranopia and protanopia makes everything look almost sepiatoned to me, with just a few splashes of vivid color, and tritanopia looks like a crazy red and teal fantasy.
Yeah, I'm sure color blind people will always wonder what some colors look like, but it's not a condition I'd say anyone "suffers" from.
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It rarely inhibits normal day to day function and honestly it's one of those things that since I've never known any different, I don't miss it.
I agree it's not something you suffer with, but hopefully some day they will be able to fix color blindness and I think the day color blind people see all the colors for the first time they will be simply amazed at the colors around them.