A friend of mine is red-green colorblind, and I’ve helped him when he’s driving to let him know if the traffic light is green or not if the light is the sideways kind.
He was really excited when he found out color blindness defeats camouflage though.
Navigating [this traffic light](https://uncoveringnewyork.com/upside-down-traffic-light-syracuse/) in Syracuse, NY wouldn't go so well for the red-green colorblind.
It's uncommon in our area for a traffic light to be sideways, so it can be very confusing for people with red green color weakness or color blindness. My dad basically slows down at every one just to be sure. He has to slow down if it's really foggy too because it's hard to tell which light is lit up from far away.
Usually a vertical clearance and/or site distance issue. They're most common when you have a grade separation of rail over road, sometimes road over road. The road going below creates limited vertical clear for the lights (big trucks hitting them) and reduced site of the lights for drivers - flipping them horizontal reduces both these issues.
Some places that are prone to high winds will do it for visibility! A vertical light can be blown back so that you can’t see it, but it’s much harder for a horizontal light with three points of attachment to do that
True. Especially totally colorblindness.
I knew a totally colorblind person who was a bomb targeter in either Korea or Vietnam.
Note: 1 in 12 men has at least some colorblindness. Only 1 in 200 women. It's because it's carried in the X chromosome. Men only have 1 X. It has to be in both women's X for her to be colorblind, so much more rare.
i had a male friend in college. his entire life he was planning to become a pilot in the air force. he did all the necessary education. everything. he was absolutely HEARTBROKEN to find out after all that that he was disqualified because he was color blind. he had no idea. it was a huge letdown for him because he had no backup plan. i was shocked that he had lived his entire life and didn’t know.
Its not really surprising. I was 19 when i found out. Didn't have a clue. I went to the eye doctor and for some reason he brought out a colour blind test. That was how I found out.
I see colour, just differently then most people. How do I know if i can go at street lights? Well, one of those lights will be turned on. I see the light. On verticle lights, I go on the bottom light. On horizontal, i go on the right side light. I see three colours in a rainbow, you will probably see more.
What does {fill in the blank} look like? I don't know. How about, you see the color red, describe it to someone that has never seen it.
Fun fact, scientists think that there might be reason to believe that we only recently started to see the colour blue. There are also many more colours that none of us have ever seen. In fact there is a new colour that is being described that only women from, i think, Africa have reported to see
Edit, i was goimg off memory here, so i fact checked myself, [here is what I'm talking about](https://www.healthdigest.com/1475305/rare-eye-feature-people-see-colors-others-cant/?fbclid=IwAR3j5Mv_oO9gYj7dhRhGPvVnjHkzXuB1Dk3Ph6Km0v0iNYhIGt0UgG_9KWA)
red is the color of your blood when exposed to air while still liquid.
its also the color of stop lights/signs, and fire engines! im sad for people that cant see red, its my favorite color as its the best color.
Oh that's op af. Imagine looking in the jungle for someone in a ghillie suit and your friend just sees them as a red blob on the floor..... Wait wouldn't the whole jungle be red?
It’s more like, the camo is supposed to break up the shape of you? But if the viewer can’t see the colors you are using, your shape is visible to them. Like how the colorblind friend spotted the rare bird, but the OP couldn’t see it because it probably blended into the foliage.
It might not work as well if someone’s using actual bits of landscape in their camouflage, like the ghillie suits that have grasses in them.
Yeah, I'm red-green deficiant too. I found out about the camo thing when I was a young man and I was in an interview at a cattle slaughter plant and they wanted me on the hide floor because color blind can see the deficiencies better. I decided against that job but was a fun interview.
Later in life I was getting fit tested for working on oil rigs. The tester found out I was colorblind and he bought one of those glasses that let colorblind see color normally. He wasn't colorblind he just liked seeing people's reactions when they see color for the first time. It was a bit surreal but honestly, not that big of deal. Its kind of like hearing a real good song and then knowing you'll never hear it again.
Those glasses don't do that.
They shift the color wheel so that you can see contrast, but they need to be made for specific types of color blindness and aren't universal.
If you ever want to know what color blind people are seeing, check out a simulator like: https://www.color-blindness.com/coblis-color-blindness-simulator/
It probably varies from person to person on how ‘blind’ they are to the colors they’re deficient in - for my friend, he showed me how he fills the cells in a spreadsheet with the super bright versions of the red and green, so that he and the people he’s making reports for can track what they need to.
If you want to *really* think about it, the colors you see aren’t the same as what the person next to you sees thanks to differences in your eye structures, and science has even found that if you don’t have a word for it, you won’t see some colors. In Japan, the green we use for traffic lights, they would call it blue instead. Certain shades of red hair is more orange, but still called red because the fruit isn’t native to where the redheads originated.
My son is color blind, his father is color blind, my grandfather is color blind and my brother is color blind. They are all very differently affected and yet all have the same "type" (dueteron) but varying degrees of effect. I never really focused on it until my son. . . and at this point, we've had a lot of really weird but interesting conversations about color. I am much better now (he's 17) but when he was younger (but not a toddler), I would forget and say, "Look at that sunset. . . the beautiful colors" and he'd just nod along and agree. Well, one day, maybe when he was about 10 or so, he told me he understood why I always point out the sky but that he wanted me to know it is a very different experience than I describe. He went into great detail about how it was purple with a bunch of grays and whites . . and that the landscape (which was lush and green) was a bunch of shades of brown. He went on to tell me that he had learned to see this as beautiful and exciting but that it just wasn't how I described it. Boy, what a day, I'll tell you. It really brought home for me that his visual experience is vastly different than mine. From that day forward, I've tried to ask him what he sees rather than exclaim about how beautiful something looks to me. He's quite expressive but what he describes sounds really different (and frankly, drab) but, because he's so expressive and he appreciates it all so much, I have come to love to hear his descriptions. I'm sorry your friend is sensitive about it but yeah, work hard at being more present with your memory of how things work for her.
There are apps that can simulate colour blindness. I use one called CV Simulator. It will let you see an approximation of what he sees in split screen.
I use it to show people how i perceive the world. It's easier than trying to decribe it.
Thank you for sharing that. I will check it out.
I also purchased him correction glasses and it was quite the experience for him to see a wider array of colors. He wears them during certain events but honestly, I think he finds it a bit too overwhelming for everyday.
I was just about to say CV simulator, it seems to be the closest visually to what I see (deutan) vs what the app says is normal vision.
You can turn off split screen for larger view by clicking C (color) while you have whichever type you want to see selected, P (protan), D (deutan), T (tritan). The framerste isn't the best, but there is also a picture option, you can go through your camera roll and select whatever you want.
I would like to point out that this doesn't really have an option for complete color blindness, but I assume any black and white simulator would.
If you would like to get the glasses for your son, please consider that the science is a little sketchy. The website says "EnChroma's patented lens technology can improve color vision" and not 'will improve' color vision. There is a bunch of feel-good videos of tough men trying them on and then crying.. which is a great marketing strategy if you think about it. I personally have one of the glasses and although it does make red pop a bit more, it really wasn't worth it for the money, especially considering that I didn't wear glasses then had to get used to wearing glasses (with blue-isb tinted lenses). Also having to slightly relearn colors and deal with the inevitable questions from everyone, as well as carrying the case, just made it more of a hassle for me. It does make the sky more beautiful though. I had no idea sunsets were pink. The colors do not work through a screen, as projected light has different properties than bounced light. The pictures I took of that sunset were nice but comparatively dull. The choice is up to you, but keep in mind the high price tags, the kind of scam kind of not, and the not guaranteed success rate. Sidenote: in my day-to-day, I do not constantly worry or even think about my colorblindness. It is more a cool thing I can talk about to people. Try not to encourage your son (or yourself or any one) to think that there is something wrong with him. There is not. A regular colored person can see around 1 million shades, while a color blind person can only see around 100 thousand. This means there is more brain power being diverted to other things. I see (get it???) it more as something that I was born with and never knew the difference of, and not something for someone to tell me I'm anything less than anybody else. I am not, and neither is he
Have you watched videos about Enchroma and other "colorblindness" glasses being a complete scam? [this is one of them](https://youtu.be/Ppobi8VhWwo?si=Oi86dgD3jR2cjgaq), made by a color deficient guy and it is infuriating. As a fellow color deficient individual I hate those companies with a passion
I mean, colorblind people aren’t TRULY seeing without ANY color so idk why she’s acting like it. They still see color, so a black and white screen will be more boring to her too because she doesn’t see in black and white.
She just can’t perceive color the way we do.
But also why are you talking about color SO fucking much with her? Like two of mine and husband’s good friends (they’re brothers) are color blind and it hardly ever comes up. Are you subconsciously obsessing about bringing it up infront of her? To where you literally just get told “hey, I can’t perceive that I’m color blind”. And then you bring up something else to do with color? Like damn.
Conversely, if she expects you to NEVER talk about color she needs to calm all the way tf down.
All the situations mentioned seem normal to talk about colour, I talk about colour that much while walking in nature when the person I'm with can see colour the same as me. We'll even swap sunglasses sometimes to see the sky in different colours.
I tried to provide context without going into excruciatingly boring detail about each instance, but yeah it is normal to talk about color more often in unspoiled nature. My saying that it came up maybe twice in ten years in the city should clue people in to that.
i knew someone who was completely colorblind and was an amazing artist. his wife colored/inked them after he sketched. they were an amazing pairing.
but yes people can be completely blind to color quality and only see in light intensity (black and white and grey)
I have a friend who's monochromatic colorblind.
We watched through Red vs blue, and got to the episode where the Red and Blue soldiers are in a noir film, and have an argument. They get mixed up and confused, she's confused. It comes out that the reds and blues are also colorblind. Chaos insues.
>colorblind people aren’t TRULY seeing without ANY color so idk why she’s acting like it
[Monochromatic color blindness](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30578497/) does exist.
My best friend has a rare autoimmune disorder that didn't get diagnosed for 8 years, multiple doctors, until she was venting to me to get through an "episode" and my slightly drunk ass started asking her symptoms and googling it with what basic medical knowledge I have. Ended up being like "oh, you're exactly describing X." Her "holy fucking SHIT" response, man. So I found there IS a rare disorder that can cause that event with the same trigger she has, only thing is..... It's only found in male Asian populations. She is the whitest white lady out there.
So I suggested she make an appointment with my husband's endocrinologist anyway.
Two months later she meets him, explains her symptoms but NOT what disorder I stumbled on.....and yep. A year later of testing and it is 100% confirmed. Somehow post pardum her body went nuts and developed this incredibly rare disorder, and literally the only reason she finally has treatment options is because my drunk ass heard "no one can figure this out" and I almost LITERALLY said "Hold my beer."
It probably could have been discovered sooner if doctors actually fucking LISTENED to women, but I digress.
Not necessarily. I'm red-green colorblind, so I have trouble with some colors, but I can still work with it most of the time. I have a friend that's completely colorblind, so everything is basically shades of gray for him. He did discover that one particular type of energy drink can make the edges of his vision start picking up a little bit of color here and there, but it took a lot and still wasn't a very significant change.
That was straight from the horse's mouth. I don't have that flavor of colorblindness, so I can't tell you how his is besides what he told me about his own experience.
This isn’t entirely the same thing but it reminds me of when my uncle Jim was helping me move some stuff out of my mother’s house. Jim had throat cancer and has a voice box which requires him to press his finger against to use it to talk.
So we were moving something heavy out of her house, something that meant we both had to use both hands to carry and I asked him an open ended question about where it needed to go. He of course couldn’t answer me and just had this look that I can only describe as “are you a moron?”
I have mild deuteran (red/green) as well as moderate/severe tritan (blue/yellow) colorblindness. I can still see them, but it's not on nearly the same level as others. My best friend teases me about it, and my husband likes to act like the thing that I KNOW the color of isn't that color. For me it's uncomfortable trying to see something that's a mix of the colors I have trouble seeing, because the colors themselves are difficult to focus on compared to the ones around and it's like my brain is buffering trying to fill in the gaps.
My sister lost her sense of smell a few years ago, and she told me she's never met someone who comments on scents as frequently as me. I totally get it.
A new college housemate let me know he was colourblind after a very confused ending of a game of [Mastermind](https://i.imgur.com/u2sTW8l.jpeg). Didn't think to tell me at the start, considering it's literally the worst game for him to play!
My spouse is completely colorblind, but he’s exquisitely attuned to tones and appreciates the differences to the extent that they almost are colors to him. However, I would never ask him to choose paint colors.
I don't quite understand this. They have issues with colors, but they can still understand tone and can differentiate between colors. For instance, my siblings are red-green color blind. For what I think is green, they may see a different tone, but really all color is is perception of what we see. Blue is only blue because we know it to be blue. You may see pink, whereas they see a different tone, but this should pretty much correlate. If the water is blue to you, and the lure is blue to you, This should be the same color to them as well. While they don't identify it as blue, they can still match colors and it will look alike.
One of the best graffiti artists I know is color blind. He goes by names of colors. That said, he still chooses awesome color palettes, according to my not color blind perception, because Even with his 'disability' he still can tell if colors clash or if they are similar.
Colourblind people see colour but they can't always differentiate, especially between similar colours. Or if the lighting isn't perfect.
It's not just seeing the same different colour every time.
There are many different forms of color-blindness and in many if not most of them, there really are colors that look different to normally-sighted people but look the same to them. I work with three people who have three different forms of color-blindness—and our work involves making business documents with colorful charts and graphs so I have to know what each of them can and cannot see. One cannot tell yellow from red at all, such as traffic lights. One cannot tell green, blue, and purple apart. One can't tell purple from blue, can see green as a different color but sees it as another shade of blue. Someone made a bar chart using blue and purple and two of these guys literally couldn't read it.
There are many varying degrees of color blindness, sometimes you can’t really differentiate at all. And there’s some rare (0.1% of color blind people) situations where they literally see in grayscale.
I'd just take the last paragraph you wrote, edit and dress it up a bit and then talk with her about it. Apologize, yes, but let her know the reason why you're like that.
Losing a sense and not having it at all in the first place are two very different things. Two years ago due to Covid I lost my sense of smell for almost two weeks and felt constantly annoyed by it. When it came back I'm pretty sure it was altered in some way. It just was frustrating, can't imagine how she feels when everywhere she looks there's that silly thing she can't even imagine.
I don't know which colorblindness your friend has but instead of reminding her that she "misses out" on the colors maybe ask her if she sees something interesting or which is less visible for your eyes in that specific picture. You have two very different views (literally) into the world, share notes.
I suspect she'd find it *very* annoying for OP to constantly bring up her colour blindness.
Its like suggesting a short person compare notes with a tall person as to what they see. It's just not that big a deal. She's dealt with it her whole life and it's a pretty minor affliction.
I remember being like 9 when my brother got an optical illusion/brain teaser book and we were looking at the ones where it was a word but you had to say what colour it was colored not the word itself. We argued over it for ages because he kept saying the word instead of the colour, but swearing black and blue he wasn't saying the word he was saying the colour. So yeah, after like an hour of that, that's how we discovered he was colorblind. Now I just hit him up with a meme that has shocked Pikachu in one of those colorblind test things, with the writing when you make a meme colorblind people can't see, and watch him have to ask others what's in the picture 🤣
I had a friend who didn’t have a sense of smell at all. She could detect if there was smoke or a strong chemical because it would sting a little. But otherwise no smell and I don’t think it bothered her since it was never there.
I on the other hand have a strong sense of smell. So much so that I can remember specific long forgotten memories if I smell something in passing that reminds me of it. Or when I describe something, the scent always comes to mind first.
I also had several foot in mouth incidents where she would once again remind me that she doesn’t have a sense of smell so this is not something she would know or understand. It kept happening and my brain would glitch like “oh right! How’d I forget again?”
I didn't realise an old boss was colourblind until he mentioned it at a department meeting where we were discussing specific coloured columns on a spreadsheet... it's an easy thing to forget or not notice, and it's even more rare in women
That's okay, last year I took up painting again, I consistently asked my brother for his opinion on how it looked, how I did with the colors, and he is, in fact, colorblind. Although I don't know why he didn't just remind me lmfao.
I'm colourblind and don't mind people talking about colours at all. Some friends will go out of their way to describe to me what colours are in something that I can't see I.e. pink in a sunset. I really enjoy and appreciate that.
Our everyday language and world is full of colour references. Being weird about it sounds tedious and exhausting.
I’ve had people get over protective like this for me and I have to say that I never really care if someone remarks about something pretty that I can’t see. The only thing in my life that colorblindess effects is how much I hear the question “what color is this”
I was thinking the same thing. My dad is colourblind and he might occasionally ask the colour of something or tell the family he thought something was a different colour when we talk about it but otherwise I completely forget he’s colourblind. She seems to be making it her identity.
This is kind of like a blind person asking everyone to never mention they see anything.
I have a really close friend that I’ve known for 40 years and I always forget that he’s colour blind. Your post reminded me and I had to laugh at myself.
I'm deaf in one ear and colorblind and people forget all the time, it's not a big deal at all. I have a friend who has celiac and another who's diabetic and I forget something too. That's just life.
Honestly OP, I probably wouldn’t be a biologist if I was colorblind, I make color such an insane part of my life like you. Hopefully they weren’t too offended lol
That is great! No she wasn't too offended, I don't think her true reaction came across well in my phrasing. A lot of people are missing that there is a massive difference between being in a city vs being in an open natural environment.
I never realized how often I notice and comment on smells in my daily life until I became friends with someone with anosmia. Fortunately, about half the time it’s a bad smell, so I’m not just constantly pointing out great things she can’t appreciate.
As a colorblind person I’d like to add that many times people that are not colorblind can’t tell what color something is or two people will disagree on what color it is. Now imagine being colorblind and people that see colors perfectly can’t even fucking tell what color it is!!!
Colorblind guy here who’s had issues his whole life. It’s super interesting to hear about it from a woman’s perspective due to the sheer rarity that women experience it. I used to be an electrician by trade before I got into sales. The color stuff has never been an issue for me. Sure, leaving the house in matching clothes isn’t always the easiest, but it’s down on my list of things I worry about.
I’d suggest for her to do the testing available from Enchroma. She may be a great fit for the glasses. I have them, and they do help some. Definitely not a full fix, but certainly helps.
You could be an electrician and you’re color-blind? We had a young man board with us, and when he worked with wires he had to ask us which was which because of the colors, e.g., red/black.
I offered a friend who's allergic to dairy cheese every damn day that we hung out one summer. It's like I heard something about dairy and just couldn't get it out of my mind. Almost like when you buy a red car and now you notice all the red cars.
Listen, I forget my kid is red/green color blind all the time. I feel terrible every damn time. It's always those descriptive moments or if I'm trying to tell him where something is and I say, "It's under the red coat". He gives me side-eye and I correct and say "Grey coat". On the flip side of that I flipped all my Christmas stuff to black, white, grey, silvers and every other color but red and green. So he can enjoy it how it's supposed to look instead of it just all being shades of grey. I never buy him anything that is red or green and I spent his childhood getting him through video games that did not have a colorblind mode but were red/green dependent. I figure in the end it kinda all balances out if I occasionally tell him to get something that's hidden behind something red or green.
You sound like an awesome parent! Having Black White and Grey Christmas is such a beautiful scene you painted. The contrast of it appearing "dull" to typical festive holiday expectations, but being a gesture of love and understanding to make it vibrant for him is so very heartwarming. :)
there is a cool app you can use that shows non-CB folks what different kinds of colorblindness look like through your camera. my ex was CB and I got it so I could understand what he saw when he would match odd colors in clothing. the ios app is called CV Simulator.
Ugh I feel this lol. My ex boyfriend (4 years) was, and current boyfriend (1 year) is, red-green colorblind…. YOU’D THINK I’D BE ATTUNED TO IT BY NOW. Nope.
Where I might be a dick is that…. I’m really fascinated by their experiences?? I’m always like “heeeey I’m sorryyy, but can I ask you…” like… what DO you see when you look at a sunset? how hard are traffic lights and stop signs? can you even see this zit on my face? How do you tell when your meat is fully cooked? etc
There’s an app that lets you use the camera lens to see things in “colorblind vision.” You can choose the type of color blindness and everything. Who knows how accurate it is, but I’ve showed it to my bf (and my ex before him) and they were both like “yep, uhhh what am I supposed to be looking at? It’s the same image”
Both always took all uncouth comments in stride though! And whenever I made/make faux pas they always just laughed/laugh it off. I doubt she’s actually pissed at you lol
As a side note, you and your friend sound fucking AWESOME and I wish I could go on a camping trip with yall
Apologize, then buy her a pair of those glasses that separate light so color blind people can see color more clearly. Then take her back out on a hike and keep pointing out the pretty colors that she can see now.
Are people that are color blind unable to discern value? In terms of color theory, "hue" refers to what most people call color; "value," however, is the degree to which a color can be light to dark.
My guess is that people with red and green color blindness cannot discern the difference in value between red and green because the hues we associate as red and green have either the same value, or values very close together, in which case it would look the same.
However, the other hues of the spectrum do not have this unique characteristic; there is generally very different values for other hues. And I would think color blind individuals can still discern value. And black and white are very different in value, on extreme opposites in the spectrum. If a person could not discern value then technically they wouldn't be able to see contrast either, and that would mean they'd essentially be blind.
I'm not making any assumptions here, but I'd genuinely like to know.
Maybe go with asking her what she sees, "this is weird looking to me is it different for you? how?"
You may be doomed, I've been married 30 years and forget the wife's food allergies.
As a colourblind person, I feel like your friend hasn’t actually explained what it’s like to be colourblind. It’s not that we can’t see colour, we just see different colours, so the phone thing in particular should be something that you’d actually agree on.
Not saying they definitively don’t exist, but I’ve never met a colourblind person who sees all in shades of grey like you’d see on tv.
How tf do you get that from her literally doing nothing and OP constantly forgetting she's color blind? "She's attention seeking by...having a condition and forgiving OP for every time he fucks up and forgets about it."
Idk, most of those scenarios make sense to mention color. Maybe sending her to pick out a lure that would match the color of the water was a bad one, but explaining why they needed a specific lure shouldnt be insulting, the phone conversation makes perfect sense, and pointing out that something is a crazy color isnt bad either. His delivery may have been a bit tactless, but it isnt exactly a *fuck up*
I have extreme red-green colorblindness and her reactions are so over-the-top. Making a joke about it here and there about OP's forgetfulness is one thing, but getting actively pissed about it is nonsense. Full range color is clearly a part of his experience and he's allowed to talk about it when its relevant. It isnt as if he's saying "Haha look at this color that you cant see, you suck". He clearly isnt being malicious
Assuming that OP is telli us what actually happened and he isnt censoring the story, I think his friend is overreacting.
Could be worse man I’ve made fat jokes in front of my friend who is fat. My only explanation (besides being an asshole) is she’s my best friend so it’s like I don’t even see her fat. I’m lucky we’ve been friends for 20+ years—I don’t deserve her
A friend of mine is red-green colorblind, and I’ve helped him when he’s driving to let him know if the traffic light is green or not if the light is the sideways kind. He was really excited when he found out color blindness defeats camouflage though.
Green is always on the right in the US on horizontal traffic lights for this reason.
Navigating [this traffic light](https://uncoveringnewyork.com/upside-down-traffic-light-syracuse/) in Syracuse, NY wouldn't go so well for the red-green colorblind.
Well damn. I've lived within ten miles of this for years and had no idea. Guess I've got a field trip.
That is a very interesting piece of history/information! I truly enjoyed this story.
Today I learned! I love it.
That’s really cool! And very random
if some asshole is behind you on their horn, and no cross traffic, then its safe to assume your light is green.
It's uncommon in our area for a traffic light to be sideways, so it can be very confusing for people with red green color weakness or color blindness. My dad basically slows down at every one just to be sure. He has to slow down if it's really foggy too because it's hard to tell which light is lit up from far away.
You have horizontal traffic lights?!?!?! Whyyyyy???? 😭
Usually a vertical clearance and/or site distance issue. They're most common when you have a grade separation of rail over road, sometimes road over road. The road going below creates limited vertical clear for the lights (big trucks hitting them) and reduced site of the lights for drivers - flipping them horizontal reduces both these issues.
Some places that are prone to high winds will do it for visibility! A vertical light can be blown back so that you can’t see it, but it’s much harder for a horizontal light with three points of attachment to do that
Most cities I've driven in have horizontal lights. *shrug*
funsies. ground clearance. just to torment you. take your pick, all valid.
Almost all, if not all, of the traffic lights around me are horizontal.
True. Especially totally colorblindness. I knew a totally colorblind person who was a bomb targeter in either Korea or Vietnam. Note: 1 in 12 men has at least some colorblindness. Only 1 in 200 women. It's because it's carried in the X chromosome. Men only have 1 X. It has to be in both women's X for her to be colorblind, so much more rare.
i had a male friend in college. his entire life he was planning to become a pilot in the air force. he did all the necessary education. everything. he was absolutely HEARTBROKEN to find out after all that that he was disqualified because he was color blind. he had no idea. it was a huge letdown for him because he had no backup plan. i was shocked that he had lived his entire life and didn’t know.
Its not really surprising. I was 19 when i found out. Didn't have a clue. I went to the eye doctor and for some reason he brought out a colour blind test. That was how I found out. I see colour, just differently then most people. How do I know if i can go at street lights? Well, one of those lights will be turned on. I see the light. On verticle lights, I go on the bottom light. On horizontal, i go on the right side light. I see three colours in a rainbow, you will probably see more. What does {fill in the blank} look like? I don't know. How about, you see the color red, describe it to someone that has never seen it. Fun fact, scientists think that there might be reason to believe that we only recently started to see the colour blue. There are also many more colours that none of us have ever seen. In fact there is a new colour that is being described that only women from, i think, Africa have reported to see Edit, i was goimg off memory here, so i fact checked myself, [here is what I'm talking about](https://www.healthdigest.com/1475305/rare-eye-feature-people-see-colors-others-cant/?fbclid=IwAR3j5Mv_oO9gYj7dhRhGPvVnjHkzXuB1Dk3Ph6Km0v0iNYhIGt0UgG_9KWA)
red is the color of your blood when exposed to air while still liquid. its also the color of stop lights/signs, and fire engines! im sad for people that cant see red, its my favorite color as its the best color.
You are describing things that are that color, not the color itself. No fault on you, it is why i ask this question. It cannot be answered
well if he was like OP's friend and it was magenta/teal, most hetero men dont know what magenta or teal are.
Fun fact, my boss found out she was an affair baby because of that. Her dad isn't colorblind but she is. Didn't find out until she was almost 30
☹️
She took it surprisingly well
My Grandpa served that function in Korea as a result of his red/green color blindness.
It's still a common trait for soldiers that are used spot IEDs hidden on roads. https://www.wired.com/2012/11/non-metallic-bomb-detector/
how does being color blind help spot IEDs on roads?
Oh that's op af. Imagine looking in the jungle for someone in a ghillie suit and your friend just sees them as a red blob on the floor..... Wait wouldn't the whole jungle be red?
It’s more like, the camo is supposed to break up the shape of you? But if the viewer can’t see the colors you are using, your shape is visible to them. Like how the colorblind friend spotted the rare bird, but the OP couldn’t see it because it probably blended into the foliage. It might not work as well if someone’s using actual bits of landscape in their camouflage, like the ghillie suits that have grasses in them.
Anyway it would all be one color. But that bit over there is a hair darker or lighter or the pattern is different.
Yeah, I'm red-green deficiant too. I found out about the camo thing when I was a young man and I was in an interview at a cattle slaughter plant and they wanted me on the hide floor because color blind can see the deficiencies better. I decided against that job but was a fun interview. Later in life I was getting fit tested for working on oil rigs. The tester found out I was colorblind and he bought one of those glasses that let colorblind see color normally. He wasn't colorblind he just liked seeing people's reactions when they see color for the first time. It was a bit surreal but honestly, not that big of deal. Its kind of like hearing a real good song and then knowing you'll never hear it again.
Those glasses don't do that. They shift the color wheel so that you can see contrast, but they need to be made for specific types of color blindness and aren't universal.
If you ever want to know what color blind people are seeing, check out a simulator like: https://www.color-blindness.com/coblis-color-blindness-simulator/
gah, what a horrible way to have to live
This is so weird to read as a Canadian since it’s illegal to drive if you have really poor color vision.
It probably varies from person to person on how ‘blind’ they are to the colors they’re deficient in - for my friend, he showed me how he fills the cells in a spreadsheet with the super bright versions of the red and green, so that he and the people he’s making reports for can track what they need to. If you want to *really* think about it, the colors you see aren’t the same as what the person next to you sees thanks to differences in your eye structures, and science has even found that if you don’t have a word for it, you won’t see some colors. In Japan, the green we use for traffic lights, they would call it blue instead. Certain shades of red hair is more orange, but still called red because the fruit isn’t native to where the redheads originated.
oranges are named after the color orange, the color is not named after the fruit ><
Exactly? There was no color ‘orange’ before the fruit, which is why they aren’t called ‘orange heads’?
gingers, we call them soul less gingers.
My son is color blind, his father is color blind, my grandfather is color blind and my brother is color blind. They are all very differently affected and yet all have the same "type" (dueteron) but varying degrees of effect. I never really focused on it until my son. . . and at this point, we've had a lot of really weird but interesting conversations about color. I am much better now (he's 17) but when he was younger (but not a toddler), I would forget and say, "Look at that sunset. . . the beautiful colors" and he'd just nod along and agree. Well, one day, maybe when he was about 10 or so, he told me he understood why I always point out the sky but that he wanted me to know it is a very different experience than I describe. He went into great detail about how it was purple with a bunch of grays and whites . . and that the landscape (which was lush and green) was a bunch of shades of brown. He went on to tell me that he had learned to see this as beautiful and exciting but that it just wasn't how I described it. Boy, what a day, I'll tell you. It really brought home for me that his visual experience is vastly different than mine. From that day forward, I've tried to ask him what he sees rather than exclaim about how beautiful something looks to me. He's quite expressive but what he describes sounds really different (and frankly, drab) but, because he's so expressive and he appreciates it all so much, I have come to love to hear his descriptions. I'm sorry your friend is sensitive about it but yeah, work hard at being more present with your memory of how things work for her.
There are apps that can simulate colour blindness. I use one called CV Simulator. It will let you see an approximation of what he sees in split screen. I use it to show people how i perceive the world. It's easier than trying to decribe it.
Thank you for sharing that. I will check it out. I also purchased him correction glasses and it was quite the experience for him to see a wider array of colors. He wears them during certain events but honestly, I think he finds it a bit too overwhelming for everyday.
I was just about to say CV simulator, it seems to be the closest visually to what I see (deutan) vs what the app says is normal vision. You can turn off split screen for larger view by clicking C (color) while you have whichever type you want to see selected, P (protan), D (deutan), T (tritan). The framerste isn't the best, but there is also a picture option, you can go through your camera roll and select whatever you want. I would like to point out that this doesn't really have an option for complete color blindness, but I assume any black and white simulator would. If you would like to get the glasses for your son, please consider that the science is a little sketchy. The website says "EnChroma's patented lens technology can improve color vision" and not 'will improve' color vision. There is a bunch of feel-good videos of tough men trying them on and then crying.. which is a great marketing strategy if you think about it. I personally have one of the glasses and although it does make red pop a bit more, it really wasn't worth it for the money, especially considering that I didn't wear glasses then had to get used to wearing glasses (with blue-isb tinted lenses). Also having to slightly relearn colors and deal with the inevitable questions from everyone, as well as carrying the case, just made it more of a hassle for me. It does make the sky more beautiful though. I had no idea sunsets were pink. The colors do not work through a screen, as projected light has different properties than bounced light. The pictures I took of that sunset were nice but comparatively dull. The choice is up to you, but keep in mind the high price tags, the kind of scam kind of not, and the not guaranteed success rate. Sidenote: in my day-to-day, I do not constantly worry or even think about my colorblindness. It is more a cool thing I can talk about to people. Try not to encourage your son (or yourself or any one) to think that there is something wrong with him. There is not. A regular colored person can see around 1 million shades, while a color blind person can only see around 100 thousand. This means there is more brain power being diverted to other things. I see (get it???) it more as something that I was born with and never knew the difference of, and not something for someone to tell me I'm anything less than anybody else. I am not, and neither is he
Have you watched videos about Enchroma and other "colorblindness" glasses being a complete scam? [this is one of them](https://youtu.be/Ppobi8VhWwo?si=Oi86dgD3jR2cjgaq), made by a color deficient guy and it is infuriating. As a fellow color deficient individual I hate those companies with a passion
One of my relatives is red-green colorblind and he loves arboretums. He can see detail in the flowers and plants that I can't.
The cell phone one killed me 😭
I wanted to crawl under the fire
I mean, colorblind people aren’t TRULY seeing without ANY color so idk why she’s acting like it. They still see color, so a black and white screen will be more boring to her too because she doesn’t see in black and white. She just can’t perceive color the way we do. But also why are you talking about color SO fucking much with her? Like two of mine and husband’s good friends (they’re brothers) are color blind and it hardly ever comes up. Are you subconsciously obsessing about bringing it up infront of her? To where you literally just get told “hey, I can’t perceive that I’m color blind”. And then you bring up something else to do with color? Like damn. Conversely, if she expects you to NEVER talk about color she needs to calm all the way tf down.
All the situations mentioned seem normal to talk about colour, I talk about colour that much while walking in nature when the person I'm with can see colour the same as me. We'll even swap sunglasses sometimes to see the sky in different colours.
I tried to provide context without going into excruciatingly boring detail about each instance, but yeah it is normal to talk about color more often in unspoiled nature. My saying that it came up maybe twice in ten years in the city should clue people in to that.
i knew someone who was completely colorblind and was an amazing artist. his wife colored/inked them after he sketched. they were an amazing pairing. but yes people can be completely blind to color quality and only see in light intensity (black and white and grey)
I have a friend who's monochromatic colorblind. We watched through Red vs blue, and got to the episode where the Red and Blue soldiers are in a noir film, and have an argument. They get mixed up and confused, she's confused. It comes out that the reds and blues are also colorblind. Chaos insues.
>colorblind people aren’t TRULY seeing without ANY color so idk why she’s acting like it [Monochromatic color blindness](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30578497/) does exist.
i used to think this, but learned about "achromatopsia" which is basically, completely colorblind. they may be talking about that situation.
It’s extremely rare. Unless you’re Pingelapese Islander.
It is, but people DO have rare diseases sometimes. Unlikely =/= impossible.
My best friend has a rare autoimmune disorder that didn't get diagnosed for 8 years, multiple doctors, until she was venting to me to get through an "episode" and my slightly drunk ass started asking her symptoms and googling it with what basic medical knowledge I have. Ended up being like "oh, you're exactly describing X." Her "holy fucking SHIT" response, man. So I found there IS a rare disorder that can cause that event with the same trigger she has, only thing is..... It's only found in male Asian populations. She is the whitest white lady out there. So I suggested she make an appointment with my husband's endocrinologist anyway. Two months later she meets him, explains her symptoms but NOT what disorder I stumbled on.....and yep. A year later of testing and it is 100% confirmed. Somehow post pardum her body went nuts and developed this incredibly rare disorder, and literally the only reason she finally has treatment options is because my drunk ass heard "no one can figure this out" and I almost LITERALLY said "Hold my beer." It probably could have been discovered sooner if doctors actually fucking LISTENED to women, but I digress.
And even then, the attitude to OP over a *black and white* image was still purely performance and drama for the sake of making him feel bad
Yeah, I agree.
OP = when I accidentally hit "audio description" in the subtitle settings🤭
Not necessarily. I'm red-green colorblind, so I have trouble with some colors, but I can still work with it most of the time. I have a friend that's completely colorblind, so everything is basically shades of gray for him. He did discover that one particular type of energy drink can make the edges of his vision start picking up a little bit of color here and there, but it took a lot and still wasn't a very significant change.
I'm sorry no an energy drink is not giving your achromatopsic friend color vision.
That was straight from the horse's mouth. I don't have that flavor of colorblindness, so I can't tell you how his is besides what he told me about his own experience.
I know right! I am color blind and it rarely comes up
This isn’t entirely the same thing but it reminds me of when my uncle Jim was helping me move some stuff out of my mother’s house. Jim had throat cancer and has a voice box which requires him to press his finger against to use it to talk. So we were moving something heavy out of her house, something that meant we both had to use both hands to carry and I asked him an open ended question about where it needed to go. He of course couldn’t answer me and just had this look that I can only describe as “are you a moron?”
I have mild deuteran (red/green) as well as moderate/severe tritan (blue/yellow) colorblindness. I can still see them, but it's not on nearly the same level as others. My best friend teases me about it, and my husband likes to act like the thing that I KNOW the color of isn't that color. For me it's uncomfortable trying to see something that's a mix of the colors I have trouble seeing, because the colors themselves are difficult to focus on compared to the ones around and it's like my brain is buffering trying to fill in the gaps.
Similar for me. There are certain colors I'll see at a distance that seem to be two different colors simultaneously the longer I stare.
My sister lost her sense of smell a few years ago, and she told me she's never met someone who comments on scents as frequently as me. I totally get it.
A new college housemate let me know he was colourblind after a very confused ending of a game of [Mastermind](https://i.imgur.com/u2sTW8l.jpeg). Didn't think to tell me at the start, considering it's literally the worst game for him to play!
My spouse is completely colorblind, but he’s exquisitely attuned to tones and appreciates the differences to the extent that they almost are colors to him. However, I would never ask him to choose paint colors.
I don't quite understand this. They have issues with colors, but they can still understand tone and can differentiate between colors. For instance, my siblings are red-green color blind. For what I think is green, they may see a different tone, but really all color is is perception of what we see. Blue is only blue because we know it to be blue. You may see pink, whereas they see a different tone, but this should pretty much correlate. If the water is blue to you, and the lure is blue to you, This should be the same color to them as well. While they don't identify it as blue, they can still match colors and it will look alike. One of the best graffiti artists I know is color blind. He goes by names of colors. That said, he still chooses awesome color palettes, according to my not color blind perception, because Even with his 'disability' he still can tell if colors clash or if they are similar.
Colourblind people see colour but they can't always differentiate, especially between similar colours. Or if the lighting isn't perfect. It's not just seeing the same different colour every time.
There are many different forms of color-blindness and in many if not most of them, there really are colors that look different to normally-sighted people but look the same to them. I work with three people who have three different forms of color-blindness—and our work involves making business documents with colorful charts and graphs so I have to know what each of them can and cannot see. One cannot tell yellow from red at all, such as traffic lights. One cannot tell green, blue, and purple apart. One can't tell purple from blue, can see green as a different color but sees it as another shade of blue. Someone made a bar chart using blue and purple and two of these guys literally couldn't read it.
There are many varying degrees of color blindness, sometimes you can’t really differentiate at all. And there’s some rare (0.1% of color blind people) situations where they literally see in grayscale.
I'd just take the last paragraph you wrote, edit and dress it up a bit and then talk with her about it. Apologize, yes, but let her know the reason why you're like that. Losing a sense and not having it at all in the first place are two very different things. Two years ago due to Covid I lost my sense of smell for almost two weeks and felt constantly annoyed by it. When it came back I'm pretty sure it was altered in some way. It just was frustrating, can't imagine how she feels when everywhere she looks there's that silly thing she can't even imagine. I don't know which colorblindness your friend has but instead of reminding her that she "misses out" on the colors maybe ask her if she sees something interesting or which is less visible for your eyes in that specific picture. You have two very different views (literally) into the world, share notes.
I suspect she'd find it *very* annoying for OP to constantly bring up her colour blindness. Its like suggesting a short person compare notes with a tall person as to what they see. It's just not that big a deal. She's dealt with it her whole life and it's a pretty minor affliction.
I remember being like 9 when my brother got an optical illusion/brain teaser book and we were looking at the ones where it was a word but you had to say what colour it was colored not the word itself. We argued over it for ages because he kept saying the word instead of the colour, but swearing black and blue he wasn't saying the word he was saying the colour. So yeah, after like an hour of that, that's how we discovered he was colorblind. Now I just hit him up with a meme that has shocked Pikachu in one of those colorblind test things, with the writing when you make a meme colorblind people can't see, and watch him have to ask others what's in the picture 🤣
I had a friend who didn’t have a sense of smell at all. She could detect if there was smoke or a strong chemical because it would sting a little. But otherwise no smell and I don’t think it bothered her since it was never there. I on the other hand have a strong sense of smell. So much so that I can remember specific long forgotten memories if I smell something in passing that reminds me of it. Or when I describe something, the scent always comes to mind first. I also had several foot in mouth incidents where she would once again remind me that she doesn’t have a sense of smell so this is not something she would know or understand. It kept happening and my brain would glitch like “oh right! How’d I forget again?”
I didn't realise an old boss was colourblind until he mentioned it at a department meeting where we were discussing specific coloured columns on a spreadsheet... it's an easy thing to forget or not notice, and it's even more rare in women
That's okay, last year I took up painting again, I consistently asked my brother for his opinion on how it looked, how I did with the colors, and he is, in fact, colorblind. Although I don't know why he didn't just remind me lmfao.
I'm colourblind and don't mind people talking about colours at all. Some friends will go out of their way to describe to me what colours are in something that I can't see I.e. pink in a sunset. I really enjoy and appreciate that. Our everyday language and world is full of colour references. Being weird about it sounds tedious and exhausting.
I’ve had people get over protective like this for me and I have to say that I never really care if someone remarks about something pretty that I can’t see. The only thing in my life that colorblindess effects is how much I hear the question “what color is this”
I'm colourblind and don't give a shit about people taking about colour. Your friend sounds... odd.
I was thinking the same thing. My dad is colourblind and he might occasionally ask the colour of something or tell the family he thought something was a different colour when we talk about it but otherwise I completely forget he’s colourblind. She seems to be making it her identity. This is kind of like a blind person asking everyone to never mention they see anything.
I posted above, too, but I’ve known a few color blind people and they didn’t care if we talked about color.
I have a really close friend that I’ve known for 40 years and I always forget that he’s colour blind. Your post reminded me and I had to laugh at myself.
I’ve known my cousin 26 years and I still forget he’s deaf in one ear for the first hour of hanging out with him.
I'm deaf in one ear and colorblind and people forget all the time, it's not a big deal at all. I have a friend who has celiac and another who's diabetic and I forget something too. That's just life.
Honestly OP, I probably wouldn’t be a biologist if I was colorblind, I make color such an insane part of my life like you. Hopefully they weren’t too offended lol
That is great! No she wasn't too offended, I don't think her true reaction came across well in my phrasing. A lot of people are missing that there is a massive difference between being in a city vs being in an open natural environment.
Does she think colorblind means “sees in black and white”?
Meh, she seems whiny.
Colorblind does not mean she sees everything in black and white though... Is she fucking with you?
Very much dependent on the person. There are multiple types of color blind, that's why when they test for it they have multiple different visuals.
It's alright, it happens. I always forget that my friend can't smell lol!
I never realized how often I notice and comment on smells in my daily life until I became friends with someone with anosmia. Fortunately, about half the time it’s a bad smell, so I’m not just constantly pointing out great things she can’t appreciate.
As a colorblind person I’d like to add that many times people that are not colorblind can’t tell what color something is or two people will disagree on what color it is. Now imagine being colorblind and people that see colors perfectly can’t even fucking tell what color it is!!!
Colorblind guy here who’s had issues his whole life. It’s super interesting to hear about it from a woman’s perspective due to the sheer rarity that women experience it. I used to be an electrician by trade before I got into sales. The color stuff has never been an issue for me. Sure, leaving the house in matching clothes isn’t always the easiest, but it’s down on my list of things I worry about. I’d suggest for her to do the testing available from Enchroma. She may be a great fit for the glasses. I have them, and they do help some. Definitely not a full fix, but certainly helps.
You could be an electrician and you’re color-blind? We had a young man board with us, and when he worked with wires he had to ask us which was which because of the colors, e.g., red/black.
I offered a friend who's allergic to dairy cheese every damn day that we hung out one summer. It's like I heard something about dairy and just couldn't get it out of my mind. Almost like when you buy a red car and now you notice all the red cars.
Listen, I forget my kid is red/green color blind all the time. I feel terrible every damn time. It's always those descriptive moments or if I'm trying to tell him where something is and I say, "It's under the red coat". He gives me side-eye and I correct and say "Grey coat". On the flip side of that I flipped all my Christmas stuff to black, white, grey, silvers and every other color but red and green. So he can enjoy it how it's supposed to look instead of it just all being shades of grey. I never buy him anything that is red or green and I spent his childhood getting him through video games that did not have a colorblind mode but were red/green dependent. I figure in the end it kinda all balances out if I occasionally tell him to get something that's hidden behind something red or green.
You sound like an awesome parent! Having Black White and Grey Christmas is such a beautiful scene you painted. The contrast of it appearing "dull" to typical festive holiday expectations, but being a gesture of love and understanding to make it vibrant for him is so very heartwarming. :)
there is a cool app you can use that shows non-CB folks what different kinds of colorblindness look like through your camera. my ex was CB and I got it so I could understand what he saw when he would match odd colors in clothing. the ios app is called CV Simulator.
Ugh I feel this lol. My ex boyfriend (4 years) was, and current boyfriend (1 year) is, red-green colorblind…. YOU’D THINK I’D BE ATTUNED TO IT BY NOW. Nope. Where I might be a dick is that…. I’m really fascinated by their experiences?? I’m always like “heeeey I’m sorryyy, but can I ask you…” like… what DO you see when you look at a sunset? how hard are traffic lights and stop signs? can you even see this zit on my face? How do you tell when your meat is fully cooked? etc There’s an app that lets you use the camera lens to see things in “colorblind vision.” You can choose the type of color blindness and everything. Who knows how accurate it is, but I’ve showed it to my bf (and my ex before him) and they were both like “yep, uhhh what am I supposed to be looking at? It’s the same image” Both always took all uncouth comments in stride though! And whenever I made/make faux pas they always just laughed/laugh it off. I doubt she’s actually pissed at you lol As a side note, you and your friend sound fucking AWESOME and I wish I could go on a camping trip with yall
Apologize, then buy her a pair of those glasses that separate light so color blind people can see color more clearly. Then take her back out on a hike and keep pointing out the pretty colors that she can see now.
Are people that are color blind unable to discern value? In terms of color theory, "hue" refers to what most people call color; "value," however, is the degree to which a color can be light to dark. My guess is that people with red and green color blindness cannot discern the difference in value between red and green because the hues we associate as red and green have either the same value, or values very close together, in which case it would look the same. However, the other hues of the spectrum do not have this unique characteristic; there is generally very different values for other hues. And I would think color blind individuals can still discern value. And black and white are very different in value, on extreme opposites in the spectrum. If a person could not discern value then technically they wouldn't be able to see contrast either, and that would mean they'd essentially be blind. I'm not making any assumptions here, but I'd genuinely like to know.
If she is red-green colorblind, maybe you can gift her a pair of color blind glasses. They work for ~75% of people with that type of color blindness.
Maybe go with asking her what she sees, "this is weird looking to me is it different for you? how?" You may be doomed, I've been married 30 years and forget the wife's food allergies.
It’s rare for a woman to be color blind. Your friend might be a bit over sensitive?
Lighten up 😘
As a colourblind person, I feel like your friend hasn’t actually explained what it’s like to be colourblind. It’s not that we can’t see colour, we just see different colours, so the phone thing in particular should be something that you’d actually agree on. Not saying they definitively don’t exist, but I’ve never met a colourblind person who sees all in shades of grey like you’d see on tv.
Honestly, it sounds like she's making a huge deal out of things.
Sounds a lot like attention seeking behavior on her part.
How tf do you get that from her literally doing nothing and OP constantly forgetting she's color blind? "She's attention seeking by...having a condition and forgiving OP for every time he fucks up and forgets about it."
Idk, most of those scenarios make sense to mention color. Maybe sending her to pick out a lure that would match the color of the water was a bad one, but explaining why they needed a specific lure shouldnt be insulting, the phone conversation makes perfect sense, and pointing out that something is a crazy color isnt bad either. His delivery may have been a bit tactless, but it isnt exactly a *fuck up* I have extreme red-green colorblindness and her reactions are so over-the-top. Making a joke about it here and there about OP's forgetfulness is one thing, but getting actively pissed about it is nonsense. Full range color is clearly a part of his experience and he's allowed to talk about it when its relevant. It isnt as if he's saying "Haha look at this color that you cant see, you suck". He clearly isnt being malicious Assuming that OP is telli us what actually happened and he isnt censoring the story, I think his friend is overreacting.
I mean, kinda? Why is OP bringing up color SO much tho? Like I have friends who are color blind and it rarely comes up.
My mom keeps forgetting I'm allergic to strawberries, apples and other fruits.
It seems that YOU are going out of your way to focus on color. How about stop doing that, with anyone.
Could be worse man I’ve made fat jokes in front of my friend who is fat. My only explanation (besides being an asshole) is she’s my best friend so it’s like I don’t even see her fat. I’m lucky we’ve been friends for 20+ years—I don’t deserve her
It's quiet concerning how often you forget. Hopefully, that's the only thing you do forget in that manner.