Colour Blindness

David Schult

Colour blindness is not the first disability that comes to mind when discussing special education but perhaps it should

be, or at least rate in the top ten. It affects a large number of people: one in twelve men and one in two hundred women

(Colour Vision Defects). Several tests for colour blindness exist that are relatively simple to give, including the Ishihara, H-R-

R, Farnsworth D15 and the City University test. An online test also exists that for children ages three to six that does not rely

on number recognition but uses shapes instead. Colour blindness is a serious condition that can be adjusted for in the classroom

and workplace without much difficulty. The costs of not addressing the problem can result in children feeling stupid, reducing

their self-esteem, and lowering their self-image. The cost in the workplace can result in accidents and death. As 83% of what

we learn can be attributed to one's sense of sight (Sucony Oil Study – class notes), overlooking an easily diagnosed learning

disability that affects a large number of people and can be remedied with little cost and effort seems foolish at best. This paper

will discuss why colour blindness should be taken seriously and what changes can be made in a classroom setting to adjust for

those students that have colour vision difficulties.

First, it is necessary to establish that colour blindness is indeed a serious issue. One way of showing this is to show the

frequency of its occurrence. Some sources cite that males “are more commonly affected; about 8% of all males and 0.5% of

females are affected to a varying degrees” but these statistics do not reflect a non-racial occurrence.

The frequency of colorblindness is fairly high. One in twelve Caucasian (8%), one in 20 Asian (5%), and one in 25
African (4%) males are so-called "red-green" colorblind. It is commoner than AB blood group.
There are always colorblind people among the audience and readers. There should be more than TEN colorblinds in a
room with 250 people. (50% male and 50% female) There is a good chance that the paper you submit may go to
colorblind reviewers. Supposing that your paper will be reviewed by three white males (which is not unlikely
considering the current population in science), the probability that at least one of them is colorblind is whopping 22%!
(Okabe)
Okabe and Ito argue that due to the number of colour blind individuals in the marketplace, that one should present a sales pitch

(or lesson plan) with the notion in mind that in many cases eight percent of the Caucasian population may be unable to

understand arguments based on colour graphs and charts.

For some, colour blindness may not seem a serious learning disability. But this paper will show that it should not only

be considered a serious problem in the classroom but also one that has serious repercussions in the 'real' world of work and

business.

There are numerous examples of substantial costs being incurred through mistaken colour identification: for example,
the cost of a day's production of resistors discarded because of incorrect colour coding; a length of carpet woven with
an incorrect colour thread; fruit picked too soon when not ripened. Consequences of inaccurate colour distinction can,
however, be far worse, as past incidences have demonstrated. When mistakes in the colour identification of signals in
shipping and railways have occurred, accidents have involved the loss of life (Colour Blindness and Engineering.
www.theiet.org/factfiles) .

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 Colour Blindness
David Schult

So if colour blindness is a serious problem, why can we not see that little Joey is colour blind? The following narrative gives a

startling personal account.

Most doctors don't know jack about color blindness. Since it is not a curable or treatable condition, why waste money
and resources on it? I know about it because I live it and can look back upon my life about it, but to most medical
personnel and social workers, they only know what they read out of textbook, and if it was a warm Friday afternoon
when that class was held, they probably skipped it.
When I was very young in school, especially around grades 2 and 3, I was a lot of trouble, a class clown. I remember
one day, it WAS a Friday afternoon, in the late spring, warm summer like day, not too far from the end of the school
year. During the late afternoon after recess all the children one by one left class and returned a few minutes later. I did
not know what was going on, so when my turn came up, I was sent to a small office where a nice young lady had a
book of about 15 pages with circles made up of coloured dots...
The very bored and tired looking lady asked me to read out the number or letter on each page. Well, I simply could not
do it, I told her there was no letter or number. The lady looked at the clock on the wall, grew very angry with me and nd
told me that she knew I was a trouble maker in class, and look again. I was very scared by this time, and the last thing I
wanted to do was get in trouble again, as it was almost a weekly ritual with me at this point in my life.
So I tried very hard, but I could not see any numbers or letters, except on maybe 2 or 3 of the 15 pages. The lady grew
very frustrated and angry with me, berated me even more and said "Look again here, there's the letter B, can't you see
it?" While by this time I was fighting back tears on the inside, so I said yes, anything to get the hell out of that room
and avoid trouble. The same coaching happened on a couple more pages and then I was dismissed back to my
classroom. Shortly later school ended and I ran home, too terrified to tell my parent about this event.
Colour blindness is a problem vastly overlooked in society today. But it is also a disability that is easily remedied. What costs

are associated with ignoring the issue? It does not stop just with the student but goes on to the consumer as well.1

A child may not be able to read out of a book or off the blackboard. Students are unable to clearly see presentations or
gather coded statistics. Employees may get orders or instructions wrong. Travelers may not be able to understand
colour coded timetables or maps. Unknown to advertisers 5% of the total population may be turned off or can not see
their product (Okabe).

The second part of this paper will establish that the intellectual and emotional consequences of ignoring colour

blindness are serious. Those unaware of the difficulties of the colour blind may gloss over the difficulties the colour blind face;

but given the simplicity of the solutions to integrating colour blind students into the classroom, those whose first inclination

may be to find the next disability a jour should best look at colour blindness. It is an easily identifiable learning disability with

an also easily identifiable solution. If unconvinced, one need only read the litany of examples from those individuals

themselves who are actually colourblind.

Defective colour vision can have an impact on many everyday activities, dependant upon the type and severity of the
defect and the lighting conditions. These include distinguishing the ripeness of fruit, reading maps, and choosing
clothes. Sufferers cannot distinguish as many different colours, they confuse certain colours (if equal in brightness) and
depending on the type and severity of defect, they may have reduced ability to see red (it will look dark), which has
implications for driving (stop lights, brake lights) because of increased reaction times.

1 If there ever might be a way to convince for profit corporation to spend money on Special Education, it may be to convince them
that 'fixing' the problem early on will create better consumers.

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David Schult

Despite the experts stating colour blindness is not a serious issue, try telling that to a kindergarten child who cannot
perceive colours like those of their friends, or an employee trying to cope with a colour coded system and will not
admit it, for fear of loosing their job (Colour Blindness and Engineering. www.theiet.org/factfiles ).
And other argue even more emphatically:
Our sunrises and sunsets are not interesting; Our rainbows are plain; Our fruit is not ripe; Our meat is not cooked; Our
clothes do not go together; Our paint charts are a blur; Our printer/camera batteries are never low; Where are the
flowers on the Christmas bush? We all have a box of 24 different coloured pencils we never use? Red and green dot
clearance sales are great; Travel route coding and signs are a waist of time; We can not even see when we are sun burnt;
I could go on, yet today, children and adults are still being told, when diagnosed with colour blindness, you will adapt
and that's it! (Colour Blind Awareness & Support Group. http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/~doverton/page5.html)

But does it really matter how colour blind students do in school? Will they not go out into the world and find themselves jobs

like the rest of us?2 The following is a short list of occupations that colour blind individuals may not apply for. Careers and

occupations known to require non-defective colour vision include::

• Armed Services (some branches)

• Customs and Excise Officer
• Civil Aviation – pilots (under review), engineers, technical and
maintenance staff, air traffic controllers
• Railways - drivers, engineers and maintenance staff
• Fire Service Officers (mild deuteranomalous allowed)
• Hospital Laboratory Technicians and Pharmacists
• Workers in paint, paper and textile manufacture, photography and
fine art reproduction (Colour Blindness and Engineering. www.theiet.org/factfiles ).

Well that list does not seem too bad – if you never dreamt of being a firefighter, soldier, nurse or pilot. But what problems does

colourblindness present in a classroom situation? The following few examples will show that colour blindness is not simple

problem.

1. John is working in his reading workbook. The directions to one item say to draw a line to the red ball. The other ball
is brown. Both colors look alike to John, so he guesses. The teacher reminds him not to be careless.

2. A teacher is writing vocabulary words on a green chalk board with yellow chalk in mid-afternoon. There is a glare on
the board from unshaded windows. Peter is sitting so that the glare diminishes the figure-ground contrast. The teacher
wonders why he is copying from a neighbor's paper.

3. Tommy ordinarily seems to enjoy reading aloud. Today, however, he doesn't volunteer and balks when the teacher
calls on him to read. The poem in the reader is printed in blue on a purple background.

4. Susan, a bright and articulate youngster, was asked to go to the front of the class and read from the blue green book
on the teachers' desk. She went to the front of the class and just stood there looking at the pile of different colored
books. Not knowing which one to pickup, she started to cry.

5. T.J. was very out going in pre-school & kindergarten. He loved to wave his arms and volunteer to answer questions
the teacher asked. The only time he did not volunteer answers was when it came to learning or identifying his colors. A
lot of the colors looked the same to him. They just had different names.

2 Actually, not the rest of us, for the author of this paper is also, colour blind.

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David Schult

6. The kindergarten teacher notices the kids during art class teasing Jimmy. The other kids think it is funny that
Jimmy's stick people have green faces.

7. The kids at school told the teacher Jeff was cheating during kick ball. They said he would break the rules by kicking
the ball when it was out of bounds. They accusingly stated the boundary lines on the green grass were clearly marked
with orange chalk. Jeff, rather than admitting he could not see the boundary line, simply quit playing with the other kids
during recess.

By this time it should be clear that (a) colour blindness is a serious problem and (b) ignoring the consequences of colour

blindness is as equally serious. Unlike many other learning disabilities, the changes needed to positively address problems of

colour blind students are relatively simple and can be implemented with little disruption or cost.

Here are eight ways any teacher can help a child if s/he has a colour deficiency.

a. Label a picture with words or symbols when the response requires color recognition.

b.Label coloring utensils (crayons, colored pencils, and pens) with the name of the color.

c.Use white chalk, not colored chalk, on the board to maximize contrast. Avoid yellow, orange, or light tan chalk on
green chalkboards.

d.Xerox parts of textbooks or any instructional materials printed with colored ink. Black print on red or green paper is
not safe. It may appear as black on black to some color deficient students.

e. Assign a classmate to help color deficient students when assignments require color recognition. Example - color
coding different countries on a world map.

f. Teach color deficient students the color of common objects. Knowing what color things are can help them in their
daily tasks. Example: when asked to color a picture, they will know to use the crayon "labeled" green for the grass,
blue for the sky, and light tan for Lincoln's face.

g. Try teaching children "all" the colors. Remember, most color deficient children can identify pure primary colors. It is
normally just different shades or tints that give them problems. If they can not learn certain colors, let them know you
understand some colors look the same to them and it is "OK".

h. Make sure a child's color vision has been tested before they have to learn their colors or color-enhanced instructional
materials are used.

For older students, consider the following:

• For graphs and line drawings, label elements of the graph on the graph itself rather than making a separate color-coded
key, since matching same colors in distant places is extremely difficult.
Do not convey information in color only. Show difference BOTH in color and shape (solid and dotted lines, different
symbols, various hatching, etc.). (example)
• Red does not appear as bright and vivid color. Avoid using red characters on dark background (Okabe, Masataka and
Ito, Kei.)

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David Schult

So what might you do if you suspect that a child under you care may have less than perfect colour vision? What practical

methods can be adapted or changes be made to ones instructional methodology? Consider the following.

• It usually helps children to know why they are having problems when others are able to do something easily. They may
have begun to think that they are 'stupid', when their eyes just work differently to others.
• If teachers know that a child is colourblind, they may be able to chose ways of teaching and learning that do not need
the child to pick colour differences.
• When your child is old enough to read, it may help to write the name of the colour onto coloured pencils so that your
child can chose the 'right' one when drawing. This can help a child avoid being teased.

Other webpages suggest the following:

1. Some colour-blind people may like bright colours because they can detect them more easily. Use BLUE,
YELLOW, WHITE and BLACK.
2. Use clear, recognisable and meaningful navigational clues on information to stop people turning off searches.
3. Consider additional labels or the pattern function on the computer, especially for maps and charts.
4. DO NOT USE washed or low intensity colours particularly on small bands, lines or text, as this will cause
difficulty in colour discrimination.
5. DO NOT rely on colour alone to convey a message give some other visual clue.

In conclusion, perhaps colour blindness should be higher on the list when discussing learning disabilities. Perhaps even in the
instruction of teachers, it could bear a higher label. It is easily identified. It is often very easily a solvable problem. And it is
often a problem that costs very little to fix. But perhaps that is exactly its problem. It lacks the intensity of autism, the
aggressiveness of ADHD and the sympathy of mental retardation. In its simplicity to identify and fix lies its own problem.
After all, is it not even a positive trait to be considered 'colour blind'?

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David Schult

List of Sources3

Colour Blind Awareness & Support Group.

http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/~doverton/page5.html

Colour Blindness and Engineering. www.theiet.org/factfiles

http://www.edgazette.govt.nz/articles.php/show_articles.php?id=6132

http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/ency/color_blindness.jsp

http://www.vischeck.com/daltonize/

http://www.start.ca/users/joneil/colour2.htm

http://www.ranzco.edu/aboutus/faq/colourblindness

http://www.toledo-bend.com/colorblind/Ishihara.html

http://www.eyecaresource.com/conditions/color-blindness/

http://www.colorvisiontesting.com/online%20test.htm

http://www.colorvisiontesting.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colour_blindness

Nordby, Knut. Vision in a Complete Achromat: A Personal Account.

Okabe, Masataka and Ito, Kei. How to make figures and presentation that are friendly to color blind people. http://jfly.iam.u-
tokyo.ac.jp/color/

Special Education Needs. Standing Conference on Teacher Education North and South. “Teaching Strategies to Help with Special
Educaational Needs – Teaching Pupils with a Visual Impairment.”
http://www.socsci.ulster.ac.uk/education/scte/sen/types/blindness_visual_impairment.html

Waggoner, Terrace L., What Teachers, School Nurses, and Parents, Should Know About Being Colorblind.
http://www.cyh.com/HealthTopics/HealthTopicDetails.aspx?p=114&np=304&id=1860 (Waggoner's webpages provide many fantastic
sources of information which are are cited here as links to the origional homepage.)

3 Every attempt was made to ensure the accuracy of the sources cited. The author acknowledges that the list of sources does
not conform to standard formats (eg. APA. MLA). This is due to a difficulty arising for a lack of internet access during the
time that the paper was written. All cites retrieved 24.08.06 and can easily be found with a goggle search.

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David Schult

APENDIX: ARE YOU COLOUR BLIND? AND OTHER INTERESTING INFORMATION.

THIS INFORMATION IS PROVIDED NOT AS PART OF THIS PAPER. IT WAS COMPILED FROM INTERNET SOURCES AND IS USED FOR
INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. SOURCES FOR THE INFORMATION BELOW ARE CITED IN THE LIST OF SOURCES.

Ten percent of the male population and around 0.5% of the female population in Canada and the USA are said to be colour blind. Now
unlike other disabilities, people with colour blindness sometimes find themselves in demand for certain roles in life. For example,
many hunting scouts and some specialized military roles are best suited by a person who is not fooled by colour camouflage. I
have corresponded with many people who over the years due to their colour binders were the first ones to bag the deer in a
hunting party.

Now regardless of if you believe in hunting or not, think of our ancestors, 100,000 years ago, hunting prey to try and keep their
family or even clan alive. Out of a group of 20 hunters, one man has the fluke of being colour blind, yet his "disability" allows
him to always be one of the first to spot and hunt down the prey. That means his family is going to eat first before all others,
and his decedents are most likely to survive, thus preserving the genetic data that passes on colour blindness.
When assigning colors to drawings

Example of redundantly coded drawings

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 Colour Blindness
David Schult

What numbers do you see revealed in the patterns of dots below?

Normal Color Vision

Red-Green Color Blind

Left Right Left Right Top 25 29 Top 25 Spots Middle 45 56 Middle Spots 56 Bottom 6 8 Bottom Spots Spots

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David Schult

Try to find a circle, star, and/or square on the Demonstration Card

Answer: Everyone should be able to see a circle, star, and square in the demonstration plate.

Card # 1 - Try and find a circle, star, and/or square in 3 seconds

Answer to Card # 1: Colorblind individuals should see the yellow square. Color normal individuals should see the yellow square and
a "faint" brown circle.

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David Schult

Card # 2 - Try and find a circle, star, and/or square in 3 seconds.

Answer to Card #2: Colorblind individuals should see the yellow circle. Color normal individuals should see the yellow circle and a
"faint" brown square.

Try and find a dog, boat, balloon, or car (as shown in the below demonstration card) on Card # 3.

Demonstration Card Card # 3

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David Schult

Answer to Card #3: Colorblind individuals should see nothing. Color normal individuals should see a "faint" brown boat.

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