What it's like to be color blind

[martin2345uk]

Can colour blindness happen spontaneously later in ones life, or is it something you’re either born with or not? I would lose my job immediately if I did become colour blind, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say it’s something that can happen in adulthood

 

[mollyc]

Can colour blindness happen spontaneously later in ones life, or is it something you’re either born with or not? I would lose my job immediately if I did become colour blind, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say it’s something that can happen in adulthood

It’s genetic, carried through the mother.

 

[Doctor Q]

Can colour blindness happen spontaneously later in ones life, or is it something you’re either born with or not? I would lose my job immediately if I did become colour blind, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say it’s something that can happen in adulthood

mollyc is correct that color blindness is inherited. I think you can be confident that you won't suddenly turn color blind.

However, there are unusual cases where someone became at least partially color blind later in life, such as from a traumatic head injury, or as a side effect of glaucoma or HIV-related neuroretinal disorder. Old age can affect color perception too; I knew a woman who began to fail color blindness tests when she was about 90 years old.

 

[Doctor Q]

Did anybody notice that Apple's privacy claims include the following?

• Microphone and Camera Notifications - When an app is accessing either the camera or the microphone on an iPhone or iPad, there will be indicator lights next to the cellular signal that will let you know. There's a green indicator light for the camera and an orange indicator light for the microphone.

As I posted in that thread, that's not good enough for many color blind people.

 

[Doctor Q]

Disneyland’s master illustrator Charles Boyer, who died earlier this month, was color blind, yet had an amazing career as an artist.

He was once fired from a job at AT&T because he confused red wires and green wires. Yet he worked his way up at Disney, starting in 1960, and became the park's first full-time artist and eventually a "Disney Legend" (the Disney version of a Hall of Fame award).

You can see some of his art at d23.com.

 

[mollyc]

It’s been awhile since I’ve read through this thread. Do any of you have the enchroma glasses? My 13 yo son is very frustrated by his color blindness and really wants some. My husband found a somewhat local place that sells them we are going to try to go to soon.

 

[jeyf]

is there an iPhone app that can re map color spectrum to assist your son?

 

[mollyc]

is there an iPhone app that can re map color spectrum to assist your son?

I’m not sure what this means?

 

[jeyf]

say your son is at the art museum. he can point his iPhone and experience and see what the artist initially saw when he created the work. the iphone would boost colors your son cant see that well.

 

[mollyc]

say your son is at the art museum. he can point his iPhone and experience and see what the artist initially saw when he created the work. the iphone would boost colors your son cant see that well.

Oh, I see. I don't know if something like that exists. But in a real world example, he is a whiz at rubics cubes but often can't discern between some of the colors. I've had to go around and label a couple of sides for him to know which colors go together. An iphone app wouldn't help with something like that. And he really wants to just have the same experience as everyone else. In theory the glasses should help, I was just curious if anyone here had actually used them. I feel like they were mentioned awhile ago, but I'd have to read through again.

 

[Doctor Q]

It’s been awhile since I’ve read through this thread. Do any of you have the enchroma glasses? My 13 yo son is very frustrated by his color blindness and really wants some. My husband found a somewhat local place that sells them we are going to try to go to soon.

A forum member who tried the Enchroma glasses talked about it earlier in the thread.

 

[BlankStar]

Just make sure the expectation on those glasses aren't aimed too high. They're not magic.

 

[Doctor Q]

Guess who's color blind?

Answer: Some driverless cars if subject to hacking.

Chinese researcher Chen Yan and his collaborators published his research results on security vulnerabilities of self-driving vehicles, including results that show that self-driving cars can be tricked into seeing red lights as green lights, with crashes a likely result.

Their test vehicles included the Tesla Model S.

 

[HalfFullmoon]

Learned I was colorblind in 7th grade by a nurse during checkup. The first and the last of any colorblind test I have taken. As to its affect, nothing major or distracting or inconveniencing in my daily life.

 

[rubraviridis]

Hi Im trying encourage people who have correct colour sight at work to use colour friendly charts. Im colour deficient and was wondering of any other people onboard who is also colour deficient, what is the best colour they can see when using a chart around an office eg: black writing on yellow, blue orange etc or is there another combination they prefer as we all see it differently. Your feedback would be appreciated.

 

[Doctor Q]

rubraviridis,

If people making charts want to accommodate people with ANY type of color blindness, they need to use patterns or shapes or direct labels, not just colors, to distinguish one item from another. The downside is that people with normal color vision won't find the charts as appealing.

However, people making charts can accommodate MOST color blind people, by limiting their colors to the choices in this chart:

If you use a white chart background, it should be fine to use any of these 8 colors. Or, if you choose one of these 8 colors as the background, the chart can use the other 7 colors.

You can find more tips in this very useful article.

 

[compwiz1202]

You probably see a 3 in this image, but approximately 3000 to 4000 MacRumors members do not. They are color blind.

View attachment 97052

About 5% to 8% of men/boys and about 0.5% to 1% of women/girls are color blind, which means they have a deficiency in their perception of color. The rate of occurrence varies depending on ethnic background and ancestry, differing from country to country.

I am color blind.

I've been red-green color blind since birth. Technically, I have congenital dichromatic protanopia. Translation: I can't see red. I see no numbers in the color circle above.

As a result, I usually can't distinguish blue from purple, because they differ by the presence of red. Dark red and dark brown look the same. Some shades of green look brown to me while other shades of green look orange. To me, pink and gray are practically identical. If you analyze the shades that confuse me, it's usually two colors that have similar intensities but differing amounts of red.

I've always claimed that this is why I'm usually in a good mood. I'm very slow to anger because you won't make me "see red".

My grandfather was born color blind. My mom was born a color blindness carrier. My brother and I, who each had a 50% chance to have normal vision, both lost the coin toss and were born color blind.

I'm not embarrassed to talk about being color blind. It's an almost-harmless affliction. It doesn't hurt, it's unlikely to ever be life-threatening, the typical problems are simple to solve, and anybody I ask for help with colors is glad to help.

I like to laugh at my own color mistakes, such as mismatching my socks or talking about my "blue duffel bag" that turned out to be purple.

Go ahead and ask me questions about being color blind, because I'm curious what people would like to know. And anybody else who is color blind (or has a color blind friend or relative) is welcome to speak up too.

I maintain a List of Color Blind MacRumors Members for forum members who have said that they or a family member are color blind.

I have that know and it doesn't bother me. I see colors; it's not all black and white. Big deal, I can't fly, and games that don't do high contrast when they start using purple I'll be too slow and lose.

 

[compwiz1202]

Also like to add the reason they use red yello and green is because they are the 3 primary colors of light and all the other shades are a mixture of those 3. Hence the reason they are used. If you are color blide to red green the people would have the same problem as they do know because they will not be able to see either red or green there for not being able to tell the color.

Also traffic lights are aranged the same way in every country.
If vertical it is
red
Yellow
Green

If horizontial it is
Red Yellow Green.

As for the flashing ones sucks to be color blind. Not much can be done about it. Just have to look at the signs close by. I always seen a stop sign on the side if it is a flashing red. (unless it is normall 3 color street light flashing because then you just go by it location in the set up to know what it is)

But that's the extremely color blind right. I can tell the difference between colors by themselves. They just get indistinguishable together.

 

[compwiz1202]

This varies quite a bit. Some people can distinguish some kinds of red and green, but not others. Some color-blind people can see red and green just fine but have trouble with other colors. Still others see almost black and white.

Agree. This is why I like the bright colors, not the subtle ones always on the Pros. Only one I liked was SB because it was a lighter shade

 

[compwiz1202]

The first time my mom heard the phrase "colored people", she thought that meant people whose skin was rainbow colors, like they were painted with this. That has nothing to do with her being a carrier for color blindness, but we always laugh about that. Or perhaps it IS related to that, since her sons think people are green!

I was "outed" in kindergarten or first grade when I started coloring pictures like a brown-leafed tree and a purple sky. I guess I couldn't claim it was "artistic interpretation".

For a while I maintained a chart to keep track of which of my shirts went with which of my pants, so I wouldn't look even more geeky than I already am naturally. But getting married (and asking my wife for advice on my daily outfit) is much easier. You don't even need Excel!

I used to go to church with this black woman who said she did not like to be called colored for that exact reason. She said I'm not rainbow colors

 

[Doctor Q]

As a perception experiment, I enabled Increase contrast in macOS > Settings > Accessibility > Display. The result was an unpleasant surprise!

The Preview colors in the Finder turned into a muddy collection. I can't distinguish the first four.

The same for the flags in Mail. Flag #1, #2, #5, and #6 look the same to me.

I guess Increase contrast isn't for color blind people like me!