This poll is finished. You can see the results at Colorblind People Feel Handicapped.
As we know, color blindness is very common among men. Approximately every twelfth men is suffering from some type of color vision deficiency, most often some form of red-green color blindness.
And this group of colorblind people—including the colorblind women among us—can be split into two parts: On one side you have the persons who don’t think that their color blindness is an obstacle for them. They don’t really feel handicapped through it and often forget about it in everyday life.
On the other side we have colorblind men and women who feel in some way uncomfortable with their color vision deficiency. Now and then there are situations coming up where their color blindness handicaps them. It’s not all the time but they think more of their deficiency as a burden they have to carry.
To which side are you belonging to?
Please join in the poll and share your answer. You can also find the poll on the sidebar where you also can get a glance at the results of the ongoing poll on a daily base.
The poll will be running for ten days. So I’ll post and comment the results September 27th on Colblindor.
It would also be very interesting to know in which way you feel handicapped or if not, why not? Please add your thoughts in the comments section and share it with other colorblind visitors.
I have been a soccer referee for some time now and have always had to keep my red card in my back pocket and my yellow in my front. if they are in the same pocket i can’t tell the difference without taking them both out (either that or i go for the shades but sometimes even that can be hard). reds and yellows are hard for me to distinguish, i also have a problem with identifying those blue flowers in green trees unless i am close. it’s like donkey from shrek but do i have the right to say “man this would be easier if i wasn’t colorblind”?
I was active duty Air Force than in the National Guard for a total of 11 years. I was a munitions systems specialist dealing with explosives and related items and never once was there ever a problem. There was no real test for color blindness then but now that I want to reenter the National Guard they tell me that I can’t come back into my old career field because I failed the Ishihara test for red/green color blindness. I can see them but I guess not well enough to pass the test. It just kills me that all of a sudden I’m not capable of doing my old job.
I have a Red/Green Color Blindness and I work as a Printing Press operator. Everyday I have to work with thousands of different colors of Ink and verify that the color is correct on the printed version. I have to work twice as hard as every other press operator because i cannot trust my own vision so i have to rely on computer scanning equipment instead of my eyes. I cannot afford to let my production fall because of my vision problems because my bosses do not know of it, and i dont tell them because of fear of loosing my job. So I believe that i am very handicapped by my color blindness on a daily basis.
As Donald McIntyre comments in ‘Colour Blindness: Causes and Effects’, colour blindness is the forgotten handicap. Colour blindness has made me realise that seeing is not believing! Having found my own interpretation of a scene so anomalous to others’, (for example a field of red poppies looks like a field without red poppies to me) leads me to wonder how much I’m actually missing in what I do see. Other than have my perceptual errors embarrassingly pointed out,there is no way to compare what I see with what normal people see so I can only speculate what constitutes true colour perception. Of course ignorance is bliss but once one is aware of a fundamental sensory flaw, one which moreover there is no cure, how can one blindly (!) trust the evidence of one’s senses?
I had a similar story to Mr. Miller Listed above, I spent my entire High School years in the Air Force JROTC program preparing for a career in the Air Force. I took my entry test, passed with soring colors, they came out with a list about a page and a half long and said I could have any job I wanted. I wanted to be an M.P. So a week before they sent me out to take my physical he hands me some cards with dots on it. I saw half the numbers and the others were just dots. Guess what…..he prints out a new job list and its literally only a 1/4 of a page long!!!! I couldn’t be a M.P. so I got up and left. It’s a Handicap as far as Im concern.
Since my young age, i have been excellent at art stuff but soon, my art teacher pointed out that my colors were mostly wrong. Therefore, I only practiced every art techniques non-related to colors as to prove that i could still draw.
Unfortunately I was not able to pursue my studies in Arts instead, I fell into programming.
However, today, I produce my own graphic stuffs [rather good] with the mere help of computer tools and some ‘perception’ of my parents or mates. It doesn’t anymore bother me, now i know how to manage it.
I never realy knew that I was colorblind up until about a year ago. I don’t feel handicapped by it at all. Thats mostly due to the fact that I try my best to stay away from anything that involves art, or anything that has to do with descriminating colors. And because I am only moderatly colorblind, so it dosen’t effect my day to day life to much. The only thing that realy bothers me about my colorblindness is when my friends prank me. Oh well, I always get them back though =)
Tell me about it, I’m MEPSing tomorrow for the air force. my dream job, TACP but I’m so worried about my color problem. I know colors and I’ve made it thirty years without a problem but one stupid test with dots that have squat to do with anything may very well decide my fate. Being color blind is a sick joke, I feel very descriminated against when I can see red or green in any day to day aplication but not mixed with random dots! God bless