Having a duller view of the world is something that I have always grown up with. According to the National Eye Institute, one in 12 men and one in 200 women have some degree of color deficiency, commonly known as color blindness. I am a part of that statistic.
Upon hearing the phrase “color blind,” many people believe I cannot see any color. This is a common misconception. In a majority of cases, it simply means that the color-receiving cones in your eyes do not work properly, often being too weak. My form of color deficiency is deuteranomaly, the most common red-green deficiency. In my case, red/green, blue/purple and gray/pink are the colors I struggle with the most.
One difficulty that I consistently face is that the Americans with Disabilities Act does not explicitly recognize color deficiencies as a disability. In reality, color deficiencies are classified as a “disease,” since it is largely genetic. This causes a gray area, as places do not have to provide accommodations. I am entitled to ask for them, yet nobody is required to provide them.
Having a different color perception than most of the population is fairly minor in my life, however as a manufacturing engineering technology major, color can play an important role in my career. Many required programs are very color-dependent. Uncommonly, these programs are not accessible when it comes to changing colors. It often takes me longer to go through processes that take much less time for my peers.
The traffic lights on campus are an example of where color-deficient people may struggle, myself especially. When I encounter a flashing red or yellow light, I must rely on the position rather than the color itself.
The light tones are too similar to distinguish without extra context clues. I now know that the lights on South State Street are flashing yellow, but I slowed to a complete stop when I first saw them. When I can’t tell the difference, I would much rather slow down at a yellow light than run through a red light.
A similar situation is the computer numerically controlled machines in Ferris’ manufacturing labs. A system of different colored lights, similar to a traffic light, is used to denote if a machine is running or not. Almost everyone else can easily see if they are running, but I have to walk up to each one to see if they are. Although this is only in one lab, many large-scale manufacturing labs use this system. Once I’ve graduated, this is an issue that will follow me throughout my career.
Two easy and common accessibility implementations I have seen are the addition of shapes with different colors and using colors that are distant from each other on the color spectrum. I play a variety of different board games and one that stuck out to me is called “Gizmos.” This game focuses on different colored marbles, red, blue, yellow and black, and cards with those colors. Each card has a symbol that denotes each other, rather than just the marble color itself. Both of these accessibility features make it much easier for someone like me to play a game that is about colors.
Either of these simple features could be applied to many places to help roughly 5% of the population, which is approximately 400 million people. The world has many beautiful and vibrant colors, but know that one object might be viewed differently, depending on the viewer.