What it's like to be color blind

[mollyc]

It sounds like your son has a classic case of red color deficiency, like me. Which means he can "see" pink, but it's another name for gray.

Yes, that is what the doctors have said, but he sees colors differently than my brother. I think my son sees fewer. My son's favorite color is YELLOW, but I honestly think more colors mush together than he might let on. My brother is red/green, but to my knowledge only had trouble with those colors specifically and doesn't have much trouble with the blues/purples. I would have expected my brother and son to have had the same severity/type.

My son's second favorite color is camouflage, and he mixes all sorts of camo together, and I try to let him wear whatever he wants since he gets so excited by patterns. For a "dressy" occasion he often tries to mix plaids and stripes, and it always breaks my heart a little to try to steer him to something more appropriate. It will be interesting as he gets older and starts picking out ties. He's already broadened my very conservative banker husband a bit in the tie department.

 

[Doctor Q]

My brother is red/green, but to my knowledge only had trouble with those colors specifically and doesn't have much trouble with the blues/purples. I would have expected my brother and son to have had the same severity/type.

Me too. I would have expected the gene they both inherited to manifest the same way.

Many people don't realize that the phrase "red-green color blind" refers to two different types of color blindness: deficiency seeing red and deficiency seeing green. They lead to very different types of color confusion.

In my opinion, your son's tendency to mix plaids and stripes has two causes. One is that kids aren't born with fashion sense, and they find wild and jarring combinations to be most exciting. We all have to learn what clothes go with what other clothes. It depends on more than colors, such as what season it is or what type of occasion you are dressing for.

But the other reason he may choose wild patterns is that patterns are more important to color blind people, because that's how they tell things apart when differentiating by colors doesn't work as well. When Mrs. Q and I are picking flooring or wrapping paper or wallpaper or anything else decorative, I tend to choose based on patterns, while she judges first by colors.

 

[Huntn]

If you're asking me, I see big letters "NO" as clear as anything. I've also shown the image upside-down to people. They see nothing special and I see the letters "ON".

I imagine that I see a large "NO", but nothing distinct. I guess that's how you feel when you are looking at panels designed to determine if you can see all colors.

 

[mollyc]

Me too. I would have expected the gene they both inherited to manifest the same way.

Many people don't realize that the phrase "red-green color blind" refers to two different types of color blindness: deficiency seeing red and deficiency seeing green. They lead to very different types of color confusion.

In my opinion, your son's tendency to mix plaids and stripes has two causes. One is that kids aren't born with fashion sense, and they find wild and jarring combinations to be most exciting. We all have to learn what clothes go with what other clothes. It depends on more than colors, such as what season it is or what type of occasion you are dressing for.

But the other reason he may choose wild patterns is that patterns are more important to color blind people, because that's how they tell things apart when differentiating by colors doesn't work as well. When Mrs. Q and I are picking flooring or wrapping paper or wallpaper or anything else decorative, I tend to choose based on patterns, while she judges first by colors.

Yes, I'm sure that as a 9 year old he chooses patterns because they are interesting to him specifically. I try not to quash him too much. Often he dresses in multiple shades of camo and pretends that people can only see his head, hands, and feet.

 

[mollyc]

I imagine that I see a large "NO", but nothing distinct. I guess that's how you feel when you are looking at panels designed to determine if you can see all colors.

Interestingly I saved the NO image on my desktop to ask my son if he can see it, but haven't had a chance yet. When I turned on my computer this morning, the thumbnail sized image clearly shows the NO to me; I guess the downsampled compression makes it much easier to pick out the color differences. I actually opened the file to see if I'd saved it with the levels layer showing, but nope, just the original image saved.

 

[Huntn]

If you're asking me, I see big letters "NO" as clear as anything. I've also shown the image upside-down to people. They see nothing special and I see the letters "ON".

Thinking about this is the "NO" made up of the colors you can see or the colors you can't discern?

 

[Doctor Q]

Thinking about this is the "NO" made up of the colors you can see or the colors you can't discern?

The N and O look orange or green to me. It's the orange that I can't tell from certain shades or green, so I could just as well call it green. My wife says those dots are a mixture of goldish-yellow and medium green.

The background looks brown or red to me (to me those are the same color). My wife says those dots are a mixture of dark orange, dark green, and brown.

 

[Tomorrow]

Very curiously, I ran the "NO" image through a filter and reversed the colors, and it was quite easy to see.

 

[mollyc]

So I told my 9YO son about the NO picture, describing in only as those dot pictures that he can never see, to which he promptly said he wasn't going to look at it. Then I told him that only colorblind people could see it, and then he was excited. And he actually *could* see it! Full sized, thumbnail sized. No "corrections" on it. So thanks for posting it so that he could finally feel like he was in a special club!

 

[Tech198]

i would imagine being color-blind would be kinda cool in a good way..

For one, trying to tell which color something would be would be a challenging-puzzle more than anything. but seems like a keep you guessing "interesting"

 

[mollyc]

i would imagine being color-blind would be kinda cool in a good way..

For one, trying to tell which color something would be would be a challenging-puzzle more than anything. but seems like a keep you guessing "interesting"

I think after a while it just gets frustrating.

I did read not too long ago that it is thought that colorblindness had a genetic advantage thousands of years ago when people hunted (obviously hunted for food and survival). Colorblind people could more easily discern light and shadow and natural camouflage, thus finding the animals more easily.

 

[Tomorrow]

I think after a while it just gets frustrating.

I did read not too long ago that it is thought that colorblindness had a genetic advantage thousands of years ago when people hunted (obviously hunted for food and survival). Colorblind people could Mose easily discern light and shadow and natural camouflage, thus finding the animals more easily.

I believe I've read (can't think of the source, sorry) that the new "digital" camouflage patterns are very easily picked up by colorblind people.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I think after a while it just gets frustrating.

I did read not too long ago that it is thought that colorblindness had a genetic advantage thousands of years ago when people hunted (obviously hunted for food and survival). Colorblind people could Mose easily discern light and shadow and natural camouflage, thus finding the animals more easily.

Extraordinarily interesting; but - following that logic - people with a superior ability to distinguish colour would also - presumably - have been better able to identify plants that were safe, or hard to find - an ability that would also have allowed for food gathering more easily?

I believe I've read (can't think of the source, sorry) that the new "digital" camouflage patterns are very easily picked up by colorblind people.

Fascinating - I hadn't known that.

 

[Huntn]

I think after a while it just gets frustrating.

I did read not too long ago that it is thought that colorblindness had a genetic advantage thousands of years ago when people hunted (obviously hunted for food and survival). Colorblind people could Mose easily discern light and shadow and natural camouflage, thus finding the animals more easily.

That's interesting! Today I imagine there would be no evolutionary pressure one way or the other regarding this characteristic.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

That's interesting! Today I imagine there would be no evolutionary pressure one way or the other regarding this characteristic.

Today, yes, in our current first world, colour blindness (or the ability to distinguish the full palette of colour) might not confer any significant advantage, but - in other worlds such things might indeed, bestow advantages.

I find it interested that this is - mostly - a sex linked chromosome; how many women or girls suffer from one or other of the forms of colour blindness?

And, indeed, among the male population, I'd be curious to see the percentages - how many suffer from each (or all) of the forms of colour blindness as a percentage of the male population as a whole?

And, I'd be fascinated to learn how many (and this time, it is, I suspect, mostly women) who are able to see more than the normal spectrum of colour, or, what percentage this might be of women as a whole?

Until I read this thread, and @mollyc's posts, I hadn't thought - or realised - that these might be inextricably linked. Fascinating.

 

[Doctor Q]

Who's up for a sightseeing trip to Tennessee? They've installed viewers for the color blind at scenic spots.

I haven't spotted a technical explanation of the technique they use. I presume that the viewers produce a false color image that a color blind person sees as more vivid. The news reports I looked at didn't distinguish which type of red-green color blindness they work for, so I'd like to hear more of the details.

 

[Doctor Q]

I spotted this T-shirt for sale:

​

Apparently, being color blind also means that you have trouble spelling words with contractions.

 

[compwiz1202]

Kind of ironic that red and green are a common problematic colour pair for people who are colourblind, and yet what colour are traffic lights..

I never thought I was colour blind, but apparently I am. I did a colour blindness test back in primary school and recognised 0/10. I remember coming out of that test confused and asking everyone what the hell I was supposed to be looking for!

My biggest problem actually is differentiating between dark colours and black actually. Dark green or navy both look like black to me.

The light thing is the most annoying thing to me. I'm not totally color blind where I only see shades of gray. I can tell green and red. I just have problems with shades of them together. Like mentioned in OP, I will pretty much quit a game that starts introducing oranges and purples and such on top of the primary RGB because it takes to long to distinguish them, so I keep losing.

 

[compwiz1202]

I am also color-blind, and it runs in my family. My maternal grandfather was color-blind and I and my two brothers are color-blind.

Here's my personal favorite color-blindness story:

A few years back, we did some major renovation of our church building. A lot of the labor was done by church members on a voluntary basis, and so I found myself working up at the church one Saturday morning. My pastor came by where I was working and asked if I could come help him with something. He didn't say what it was he needed help with, and it didn't occur to me to ask, so I just dropped what I was doing and took off after him.

We walked down this hallway and that. A kind of meandering route, with neither of us speaking much. Finally, after a few minutes, we arrived at a far corner of the building where there stood an open switchbox of some kind. It was only then that Brother David turned to me and said: "Lyle, I need you to tell me which one of these is the green wire and which one is the red, because I'm color-blind." I laughed and told him (a little too late) that I was exactly the wrong person to be helping him.

The color blind leading the color blind.
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What do you see here? I see no digits at all, which is the expected result for someone who is red-green colorblind. Others should see "45". It still feels magic to me that anybody sees digits that are clearly (to me) not there!

Definitely see no numbers this time, even knowing it should be 45. The 3 I could sort of distinguish since I was told it should be 3.

 

[compwiz1202]

A reverse color blindness test image

The book Puzzillusions by Archimedes' Laboratory contains this image:

View attachment 687060​

Copyright © 1992-2015, Gianni A. Sarcone, Archimedes-Lab.org. Used with permission​

People who are red-deficient color blind (like me) should see something in the image quite clearly, while people with normal vision should see nothing but random dots, or struggle to see what the color blind see.

The image works as they claim on most of the people I've tested so far:

me: I see it.​

another red-deficient color blind man: he saw it.​

1 girl with normal color vision: she saw nothing.​

2 men with normal color vision: they saw nothing.​

1 man with normal color vision: he said it was a little hard to recognize but he could see it.​

4 women with normal color vision: they saw nothing.​

It doesn't work the same way for green-deficient color blind people. They should see a messy area that's not really identifiable.

What should different people see. I sort of see 58.
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white & gold dress

This post just reminded me of the infamous dress that was all over the internet. The black & blue dress or the white & gold dress! I see the dress as gold & white, but the dress itself is actually black & blue! I am sooo confused!!! I don't think I am color blind...

The very first time I ever saw it, I saw gold and white quickly, but it went dark, and I could never see gold and white ever again no matter what I tried.

 

[Doctor Q]

What should different people see. I sort of see 58.

If you're red-green color blind you should see an obvious word NO. Otherwise, you shouldn't see a recognizable word.

Caveat: People can be color blind to various degrees, so it's not really a matter of IS or ISN'T.

Don't tell the word in the picture to anyone you are testing. Just show it to them ask what they see. "NO" indicates that the person is red-green color blind. "Nothing" indicates the opposite. I don't know what "58" tells us.

 

[Thirio2]

I recommend children get tested for color vision early. I was 18 before I was tested and found out that I was color blind to all colors. I saw colors but could not distinguish them. Until that time I had to read the color on the crayon and I wondered why I couldn't just pick the crayons up like my cousins did.
After many years I think I know how to describe my condition to others: Imagine a very talented painter painting a colorful meadow scene with all the colors on his pallet. Now ask the same painter to paint the same scene using only red, green and blue. He can make the colors lighter or darker but cannot mix them to make other colors. The second scene is the one I see. Can't tell blue from purple, yellow from green, green from red, etc.

 

[Healer Flame]

Go ahead and ask me questions about being color blind,

Does it affect your daily life ?

 

[Doctor Q]

Does it affect your daily life ?

Yes, in all sorts of minor ways.

Here are some examples, some of which I've mentioned before:

• My coworkers know not to highlight messages (such as in an email) in red to get my attention. If they forget, I have to remind them.
  
• Somebody recently told me that cranberry sauce is red; I always thought it was dark blue, but never really thought about it and never asked.
  
• I have a pretty good system for picking out clothes to wear, but Mrs. Q lets me know now and then when I goof and put on a mismatched set.
  
• Devices like my wireless headphones have chargers that glow one color when they are charging and another color when they are fully charged. Since I can't tell which color is showing, I have to wait until I know it's been long enough, or ask somebody else for help.
  
• Apple's Airport devices have solid or blinking LED lights to tell you the status. I can tell if a light is blinking, but not if it's amber or green.
  
• I sometimes have to skip over printed charts and graphs, such as in TIME Magazine, because I can't tell the shades apart.
  
• I can't tell a raisin bagel from a chocolate bagel.
  
• If I want to do any electrical wiring, I use a translucent piece of red plastic. Putting it in front of a red wire causes it to look white, so I know it's red.
  
• I see strange wording on billboards, e.g., "Get the now!" with a space between "Get the" and "now," because the background is dark and there's a red word in the phrase that I can't see.
  
• Perhaps the most annoying inconvenience is when I play board games with kids. Games almost always have four or more colors of tokens or cards or markers of some kind. There are invariably at least 2 that I can't tell apart. Everyone has to let me pick mine first, so I can choose one that I can identify. Then I know which token is mine, but I still may not be able to tell the other players' tokens apart during the game. How can I beat the kids if I'm at a disadvantage like that?

 

[Healer Flame]

Wow I am surprised we don't hear much about it.