Are there certain common types of colorblindness? or is everyone pretty much different?
I’m making a website. There’s a black background. I’m using six different colors to show different parts of a Chinese character. I was thinking of using:
white
blue
red
yellow
green
Now I just need one more color.
I think brown is out because a lot of color-blind people can’t distinguish it from red.
Any advice?
Colourblind people can’t tell the difference between red and green. You need two more colours.
Is that really the only kind of colour blindness there is? My father has the problem of not being able to differentiate between red and green. Due to people who knew nothing about genetics I was tested for colour blindness a number of time as a youngster. You’d inherit from your mother’s genes as she’d be a carrier rather than your father. It may have been also possible that was due to my father’s influence I once owned a brown dog with the name Purple Dog. So I think it may be more than just red and green.
The movie and book Rumblefish made me believe that some people could not differentiate between more colours than just red and green. I know S.E. Hinton due to her age wouldn’t have had a broad world knowledge when writing that particular book but I’d like to think Motorcycle Boy’s colour blindness was based on fact.
Red-green color blindness is merely the most common, not the only type. And it’s not even ‘one type’, it’s a group of types. There are also difficulties with blues, affecting yellows and greens – often called blue-yellow blindness; there are also completely chromatically blind people, although very rare, who see in B&W.
Here are a couple decent links:
http://www.webaim.org/techniques/visual/colorblind
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_blindness
I know this is an old old thread and sorry for resurrecting it. I am colour blind, and never got tested with it as a child only sent out of the Art class 
because they didn’t know beter.
I don’t know what type I am, but I have done enough online tests (and lived it my whole life) to know that I can’t distinguish between a lot of colours.
The reason I am bumping this thread now is to ask how other Colour blind people cope?? I now they say driving is impossible, but usually, a country or area has lights in a particular order. Red on top, orange in the middle and green at the bottom etc. I don’t drive,but I can nudge the driver to move when I see the lights change. So i guess most colour blind drivers have tricks like that.
I never use a colour reference. e.g. ‘the lady in pink’. I’ll say big hair, or shiny purse or some other description.
If there is an imp. event coming up, I pick my out fit and its accessories well in advance and run them through family members to check if they co-ordinate.
Colour blindness can be a big challenge in parenting. I can’t spot mild rashes or sores until they turn a dark blistery red. The worst was when I thought my son had some red in his poo and I had to recheck with my little girl who turned up her nose and said its green and went away shaking her head. LOL.
Ditto with makeup. I never wear blush, coz I can’t see it.
Whenever a recipe calls to brown sth. I usually stop before I can see it as brown, coz by then it would be a dark dark brown.
Remember what other people call a colour. I have to remember a lot. If someone tells me my shirt is pink and I thought it is white, I keep it in mind for next time. Ditto with hubbies suits. I can’t tell his navy blue one from his blacks, but I know they were made by diff. tailors so I check the tags, or they have different buttons etc. Shirts are tougher coz he has several shirts of the same style.
Any other coping mechanisms out there?
In ichthyology lab exams, a TA sat next to the colour bind student and told him all the key patterns and colours. It was awesome because he didn’t have to try to distinguish what the important features were. He aced the exams. Pity he could never use it in the field, though. I hear what you say about a lot of memorization. That would be hard for me as I am such a visual learner.
[quote="divea"I don’t know what type I am, but I have done enough online tests (and lived it my whole life) to know that I can’t distinguish between a lot of colours.[/quote]
It sounds like red-green colorblindess from your description. I had a roommate who had it, and I never knew until one day he asked which garbage can was for the recyclable aluminum cans, and I said the green one, and he said ‘which one is that?’.
He didn’t really have to cope much, since such color discrimination task aren’t that common. He dressed like a slob so outfits weren’t really an issue either. 