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Color Blindness Myths and Misunderstandings

joedolson.com

11–15 of 15 posts

Re: Color Blindness Myths and Misunderstandings

#11
post #5

I had a color blind client once. He kept rejecting my duotone artwork because it didn't 'look right.' When he finally admitted he was color blind, I asked him 'why are you trying to make color decisions when you have this condition?' and he said, 'because i'm in charge here.'

yes, but don't forget, if it didn't work for him it also might not work for possibly 10% of male population, so I reckon he made the right call. yes he should have been more up front, but he was right.

Re: Color Blindness Myths and Misunderstandings

#12
For me, this issue affects my language choice.

I can pretty much get used to any language, so I don't participate in the language wars very much. I get used to a language's idiosyncrasies and work around them.

However, I very much dislike coding in PHP and the main reason is the colours of the documentation website. For some reasons, the website maintainers have chosen to display code examples as orange text on grey background.

For me, this is extremely hard to read, I have to really concentrate on the text and sort of narrow my eyes to make it out. Instead of being able to quickly flick through the docs, I have to concentrate on each and every piece of code. It's very exhausting.

As a result, I go out of my way to avoid PHP.

Re: Color Blindness Myths and Misunderstandings

#13
post #11
post #5

I had a color blind client once. He kept rejecting my duotone artwork because it didn't 'look right.' When he finally admitted he was color blind, I asked him 'why are you trying to make color decisions when you have this condition?' and he said, 'because i'm in charge here.'

yes, but don't forget, if it didn't work for him it also might not work for possibly 10% of male population, so I reckon he made the right call. yes he should have been more up front, but he was right.

You mischaracterized the situation; the baseline for a colorblind audience is legibility, not quality. In other words, you make it so they can see the difference, but not the beauty, which would actually be impossible. Also, there are many different forms of colorblindness which in toto add up to 10%, however, there is not, iirc, one case which the entire colorblind audience would see as one.

Actually, once this was put out in the open, and discussed, I was allowed to sign off on the artwork, and the project was completed successfully.

Re: Color Blindness Myths and Misunderstandings

#14
post #13
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yes, but don't forget, if it didn't work for him it also might not work for possibly 10% of male population, so I reckon he made the right call. yes he should have been more up front, but he was right.

You mischaracterized the situation; the baseline for a colorblind audience is legibility, not quality. In other words, you make it so they can see the difference, but not the beauty, which would actually be impossible. Also, there are many different forms of colorblindness which in toto add up to 10%, however, there is not, iirc, one case which the entire colorblind audience would see as one. Actually, once this was…

true, but colours such as grey and pink together clash horribly for me, where as they seem quite popular in some print advertising at the moment. you might not be able to see how bad they look, but I can ;)

I know what you are saying, and again agree that he should have been upfront with you. but as a sign off point in the company I work for I would not sign off something which did not work for me, and would explain why to the designer.

I forget which tests I fail, but its all of them except the really rare blue one. its never stopped me producing visually exciting and arresting sites for children (and all as accessible as possible, I work for a public broadcaster) which all ensure contrast levels that work as widely as possible for colour blindness (and are also as accessible as possible for screen readers, users with aspergers etc.).

Re: Color Blindness Myths and Misunderstandings

#15
post #14
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mischaracterized the situation; the baseline for a colorblind audience is legibility, not quality. In other words, you make it so they can see the difference, but not the beauty, which would actually be impossible. Also, there are many different forms of colorblindness which in toto add up to 10%, however, there is not, iirc, one case which the entire colorblind audience would see as one. Actually, once this was…

true, but colours such as grey and pink together clash horribly for me, where as they seem quite popular in some print advertising at the moment. you might not be able to see how bad they look, but I can ;) I know what you are saying, and again agree that he should have been upfront with you. but as a sign off point in the company I work for I would not sign off something which did not work for me, and would explain…

I should also say that we have an accessiblity document all designs must follow, so anyone working with us will be aware that they need to consider such things before they start. I'll see if I can link to a copy.
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