Color Vision

15 Tools For Those Who Are Colorblind and Those Who Are Not

Fellow colorblind blogger JNvB, who is based in the Netherlands (www.kleurenblindheid.nl), has developed a list of 15 tools (software and websites) that can help those who are colorblind as well as show those with normal vision how the world appears to colorblind people.

My colleague in colorblindness, Daniel Flück (www.colblindor.com), has posted an English version of the list on his blog, Colblindor.

JNvB is trying to get as much exposure as possible to the post on Coblindor in the hope that readers will return with comments on software or tools that he may have missed.

The list includes tools in the following areas:

• Assistive software for colorblind people
• Colorblindness simulation software
• Online colorblindness simulations
• Color recognition software
• Online color recognition

Link: 15 Tools If You Are (Not) Colorblind

How We See The World

by Zack Ybara

If you have normal vision and wonder how things look to a color blind person, one of Paul Martin’s programmer colleagues can show you. He, like 10.5 million other American men, has red-green vision deficiency. A little over a month ago he posted a public service blog post on color blindness, both to show everyone else how color blind individuals see the world and to remind designers to think twice before designing something that requires viewers to discern between colors to get their point.

His blog post compares several sets of two images, the first image indicating how it should look like to a person with normal vision, and the second showing what it looks like to a red-green color blind individual. Those with normal eyesight will immediately distinguish the differences between the images, but for those with red-green color blindness, they’ll look surreally the same.

Take a look at his post on CritiqueWall.com for a glimpse into our world.

The Story Behind the Color Vision Store

Last week an interview with me appeared in the blog for SKMurphy, Inc., a sharp group of Silicon Valley business strategists led by Sean Murphy.  Sean is one of the few folks I know who really understands how to integrate a content rich blog into a company website--he gets that markets are conversations and they consist of people.  I can't say that we're at his level at the Color Vision Store, but every tip I've been able to integrate has had benefits. For an overview of what Sean, Theresa and Francis have had to say on the topic of blogging, click here.

Source: SKMurphy.com - Founder Story: John Nash, CEO Color Vision Store

Robert Hammerton’s Color Blindness Research Projects

by Zack Ybara

Robert Hammerton is a multimedia practitioner who’s currently blogging about his products and how he develops them. His current personal research project (PRP to him) involves the investigation of how color blind individuals experience surfing the web. His aim is to raise the issue of just how much web developers today consider the needs of color blind Internet users.

During the course of his study (which apparently began a mere few weeks ago), he has come across a free colorblind filter tool which he plans to use to illustrate how web pages look like to users with different types of color blindness. This colorblind filter is also currently under development, and the owner would appreciate feedback.

Presently, Robert insists that while color options for websites currently exist, having multiple color filters for websites or browsers will provide complete accessibility for color blind individuals. This is important, he says, as it would result in better user experience and improved company-user interaction.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on Robert’s work in the days to come.

Feed Burner is Also Guiltyof Depriving Millions of Color Blind Users

The Color Vision Store uses FeedBurner, a wonderful tool, to manage subscriptions and RSS feeds for its blog. FeedBurner offers a graphical display of subscription sources in the form of a pie chart. Unfortunately, if I were told that I should look at the green quadrant, I wouldn't know which one you were referring to, because three of the four pie wedges appear as different shades of green to me (the upper right and both on the bottom). The upper left pie wedge appears gray. 

This FeedBurner pie chart is terrible for red-green color blind subscribers.

Hey, there's just more of you than me

I've been having a discussion for some time now with my friends and family about the social construction of color blindness. It goes something like this: we're just outnumbered, so you guys got to name the colors.

I haven't come around to writing it up more completely, and knowing my tendency toward unparsimonious prose (thanks to a long and dutiful indoctrination brought on by years in higher education), I'm just going to paste hanz's full post with full props. Right on, hanz.  You captured it.

what colour is that?

it's not the first time; won't be the last time.

i was pondering about the rationale behind people's reactions (did i say unanimous?) whenever they come to hear that i am colour deficient. the reactions are almost always a point to something red or green and ask me what colour that is. and surprisingly (at least to them), i almost always get it right and they say "there, not colour blind what".

i've come up with a few possibilities:
1) they dun trust that i know that i am colour blind
2) they relish casting me as a freak in freak show.

trust me. i know i'm colour blind. unless... i am the few people who are not while most people are. too bad, i'm the minority, you guys call the shots. if you categorise me as colour blind, so be it. at least to my people, we see the same colours. =) if one day we outnumber you guys, trust me, i'll be the first to label you guys colour blind and ask you the same question.

what colour is that?

Link: a new beginning.

Color Vision Vibe: Blog and Site Roundup

Here's my scoop on what's been going on this week on color blindness.

• Music that's color blind...or at least has the word "colorblind" in it:  The album "Colorblind" from Robert Randolph and the Family Band is their third album.  Eric Clapton, Dave Matthews, and Leela James "join for a jam-packed, emotion-filled, good-time party mix of funk, soul, rock, gospel, and blues" (Amazon). This stuff is on, people.
  
  • Listen to samples here: Colorblind by Robert Randolph and the Family Band
• Phillip provides a short review of The Island of the Colorblind, a compelling read. Check out his review here.
• Colblindor has a great post on improving the readability of public transport maps for colorblind travelers.
• Jason Kottke also covered the "martian colors" issue that I posted on last week.
  • Flying Pudding aslo covered it.
  • As did Cosmic Variance in a really good post
• GlideMet is a "a bit colour blind" but that doesn't stop him from posting gliding weather updates for southern Britain.

Color Vision Vibe: Blog and Site Roundup

Here's what's been going down or been found on the Internet this week on color blindness.

• Daniel Flueck at Coblindor reviews SeeKey, a handy tool that helps those with red-green color blindness tell certain colors apart.
• Mostafa at Designriffic just found out this year that's he's colorblind. He's 27.
• The Case of the Color Blind Photographer
• "Colorblind" on D'Ago...stiNO's Flickr stream