After that lecture it got me thinking about being colour blind and how much it actually affected me as a designer or and artist, and it made me wander if people who were colour blind would avoid going into a discipline that relied so heavily on colour.
At that point I was currently awaiting a response from the disability services after sending them an enquiry as I was having some difficulty working on the Macs in the computer suits. I went in for a meeting with an adviser later and was quite shocked at her lack of knowledge and somewhat patronising approach to the subject. I didn't feel that she understood colour blindness (although stating her husband was so she knew all about it) and also why it could pose such a difficulty in a design based subject. This lead me to think that if she didn't really understand it then most other people wouldn't either so I tried my best to think of way to describe it so that people would understand.
So I'l try my best to describe it in a way that everyone will understand. Basically the term Colour Blind is a bad term for it, we aren't blind in any way, we can see in the exactly same way as you do. However it is all about perception and how or what you perceive a colour to be. I read a good story by a colour blind Canadian man that best descrtibes it...
One day this man went out and bought 4 blue mugs, and for years he had his favourite blue mug. He didn't have a reason but 1 of the 4 was his favourite, and one day he couldn't find it so he asked his wife where his favourite blue mug was. Blue mug.....she said? Your favourite Green mug is in the bedroom. He was unaware that years ago he went out and bought 3 blue and 1 green mug and as they were all together he assumed they were all blue. Although as soon as his wife told him that one was blue and one was green he could see a clear difference.....This in my case is what colour blindness is to me, all that's needed is a little help. It's not what colours this pen? Blue. Aww well you can't be colour blind cos if you were then you would think it was yellow.
Some good did come out of my meeting with the disability officer however as she sent for a man from the ICS department to come see me about software that could help. He was a very nice man probably in his late 50s and he took a keen interest about finding out about Graphic Design. I was also pleased to find out that he was also colour blind and in his younger years had wanted to peruse a career in art and design. The sad part was that he felt that because he was colour blind he wouldn't be able to do something like that. This brought me back round to the thought that other people were still thinking this way when it is quite easy to get round these obstacles now. I personally don't feel at a disadvantage and don't think that I should either as to be honest it's quite nice to be different some times even if its just through my eyes.
George gave me a few websites to look at to help. There are a few that are particularly useful and should be looked at not just by colour blind people but by others too as they are useful to help them understand. Enjoy.
http://www.colblindor.com/ - this ones very useful
http://www.colorschemer.com/download.php - theres a download called colorpix which is quite good.
My uncle only found out he was colourblind at age 30, by which time he'd already trained and become an art teacher! He had always wondered why he liked working in black and white. The funny bit was that he found out on a phone call with his mum, who told him casually that he was colourblind! She hadn't thought it important to tell him!
ReplyDeleteAlso of note, I did a little post about colourblindness in video gaming, and there's a series of interesting comments.
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/07/30/colorblind-gaming-or-table-tennis-is-impossibly-hard/
I used to try and correct people and say the correct term for what I have is colour differentiation deficiency, but now just resort to saying colourblind. I find it quite fun explaining it if I'm honest!
http://twitter.com/coneee
My finace is actually colourblind and he is a production designer. He doesn't tell anyone at work, because of the stigma attached to it, but he figures that whether the colour he's picked for something is the same colour as everyone else sees or not it doesn't matter much. His thinking is that the way he sees the colour he still knows whether it looks good next to other colours or not. If that makes sense. And in all his years no one has ever said 'Why did you chose that colour?'
ReplyDeleteI do, on occasion wind him up and tell him certain colours of his clothing aren't what he thinks, but they usually are what he thinks and I'm just mean.
I'll definitely check out some of your listed sites though.