Colorblind

Being colorblind is a frustrating thing! Just the other day I told someone I was colorblind and they immediately begin holding up or pointing at things and saying, “What color is this?” It is a refrain that has been repeated to me, and I suppose other colorblind people, a thousand times over the years. It is as if they don’t believe you and you have to prove it all over again.

I have even had people argue with me and say “You are not colorblind!” or “How do you know?” I wonder if they would treat a blind person the same way? The Army confirmed I was colorblind in 1968. When I went for my physical they made me go though the colorblind test six times and finally the guy said, “You’re colorblind.” I asked him if that would keep me out of the service and he said, “No, colorblind people make good snipers!”

Let me just say that we do see something, just not in the same way as you. When you say, “What color does this look like to you?” I can only say what it looks like red, green, or whatever, because it has always been that way for a colorblind person. Blended colors or colors side by side are hard for us to distinguish, so red next to green might look all green or vise versa.

When I was 12 years old I didn’t know what was wrong. More than once someone said, ‘Don’t you know your colors?” The first time through kindergarten my teacher thought it was just immaturity. They second time through some thought I just wasn’t quite right. “It’s too bad! His sisters are such bright girls! I guess they got all of the brains.”

I am actually quite skilled at hiding it. I only share my secret with those I think I can trust. Unfortunately, the world is color-coded, so I can’t always get away with it. I wish that people wouldn’t laugh when they find out but they usually do.

Now, lest you think I was terribly scarred by this it is not so. I learned to compensate for it and am probably a better person for it. I would never consider trading what I see for what you see. I am just looking for a little tolerance here. In truth, everyone in the world sees things a little differently and that is a good thing. We should celebrate that!

I have deuteranopia. Wanna see what I see? Check http://www.vischeck.com/examples/. In case you want to know the first two look exactly the same to me. There are entire websites now about colorblindness and even several about how to design things so colorblind people won’t have trouble reading it.

Growing up I didn’t understand all of the fuss about color TV. I just really didn’t see a lot of difference and what I did see didn’t look like real life. Things that seem to be the most difficult are things like: weather maps are hard to read because so many of the colors blend together; traffic lights aren’t too bad because you can almost always tell which one is lit, but it is difficult to determine if a flashing light ahead is red or yellow; people who get too much sun don’t look much different from anyone else; matching clothing can be hard if not impossible; crayons with the color name on them are very helpful; fall leaf colors, except for yellow, aren’t all that different from any other time; and I need help determining if meat is fully cooked. Directions that include colors like, “Look for the green house on the right.” can be tough, too.

At least one in ten men is color blind in one way or another. I have heard of many who are a lot worse off than me. Think about us when you use colors.