[Labqueen]

Just wondering if there are any other colour blind students here, and wondering how they have coped with their course, lecture powerpoint slides etc.


I am a female and have tritanopia, Blue/yellow colour blind. While it is more common for red/green males and very rare for female red/green, anyone to have tritanopia (equal in both sexes), it is extremely rare.

I was given some concessions for exams such as allowed to use coloured overlays and special tinted lenses, however I did find many of the lectures difficult to follow due to the use of colour on power point slides. While some tutors were excellent and altered colours, checking which colours I could see and distinguish between, some simply couldn't grasp the fact that colours such as yellow are totally invisible to me, and several colours (with a yellow tint or shade) look totally different to me.

So how have other colour blind people coped and found ways to "see" what they are meant to?

[OU Student]

I am colourblind, apparently. But it seems to be many colours. (I don't have the rare form where you just see in black, white and shades of grey)

[avig613]

Am colourblind, and found it a bit of a problem in chemistry when describing results!
I think there are good solutions, but personally I just guessed and still managed to get an A* at A level! Just goes to show... something or other!

[avig613]

Am colourblind, and found it a bit of a problem in chemistry when describing results!
I think there are good solutions, but personally I just guessed and still managed to get an A* at A level! Just goes to show... something or other!

[Labqueen]

I think one of the problems which seems to be cropping up with colourblindness is that while there are various forms known about, there is very limited data available on types other than red/green.

I was asked by one of my genetics tutors if I would consider my research program to be based on tritanopia as there is simply not enough data available to give a full and comprehensive understanding about the defect and how people who have the condition see colours.

I see all blacks greys and whites, though I can not see yellow, I can see strong shades of orange, green and blue, though lighter shades of orange are pink, lighter shades of green are aqua, and lighter shades of blue are aqua. Some blues are purple and some purples are pink. The colours I see most are pink and red.

It took quite a few years to finally diagnose the condition and I actually found it more difficult with the tinted lenses as then my perception of the world and how I saw things altered quite a bit, while not truly seeing all the colours I was able to view a rainbow differently and many other things. I can't wear the lenses for long as it begins to strain my eyes .

And yes I ended up in chemistry, histology and microbiology sometimes guessing the results as I simply couldn't judge the colours. I never did A levels so never had to test my vision in that level, but the degree is causing some problems in some areas, though it's still manageable.

I find that with the use of powerpoints and computers more in lessons has made the problem more noticeable. It was never a problem when I was at school as we didn't have computers, I still remember the old BBC green screen computer first being introduced to the school during my secondary school years. We only had blackboards with white chalk that was used by the teacher in lessons which I can easily see.

[OU Student]

What do the tinted lenses actually do, in terms of colour blindness?

[Labqueen]

I don't know if it's the same in all forms of colour blindness but with mine it does help me distinguish between colours. They don't make you actually "see" a colour but it can help to show that something is there or give enough of a difference between colours.

My specialist ran several tests and had said that in red green C/B it was usual for a person to only need one tinted lens, either on glasses or contacts, with the tint generally being red. In my case I need both lenses tinted, mine are with a yellow tint, so the lenses look clear and with no colour to me but when wearing them I am able to see a broader spectrum of colour, shades of greens and blues I can't see without the tints.

If I use the tinted lenses with coloured overlays (purple and aqua) I am able to see if yellow is on a page as the tints alter the colour to one I can see, like a brownish colour.

So while it doesn't make you see colours how others do, it can allow you to tell a difference between them.

[threeportdrift]

(Original post by Labqueen)
Just wondering if there are any other colour blind students here, and wondering how they have coped with their course, lecture powerpoint slides etc.

(Original post by OU Student)
..................

(Original post by avig613)
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Totally non-expert view here, but I regularly used to revise a colleague's powerpoint presentations because he was colour blind and used to produce slides in ranges of pastel pinks and oranges. Not such a good look in a military environment!

Could you devise a custom style in Word that maximised the difference of colours for your vision, and then send it to individual lecturers asking them to use it? I suppose you'd want to check it against standard colour vision, but it shouldn't be too difficult to come up with a standard colour scheme that would work in Word and Powerpoint and was useful to all colour visions. Not many graphs/tables etc need more than about 6 colours.

[The Polymath]

(Original post by Labqueen)
Just wondering if there are any other colour blind students here, and wondering how they have coped with their course, lecture powerpoint slides etc.


I am a female and have tritanopia, Blue/yellow colour blind. While it is more common for red/green males and very rare for female red/green, anyone to have tritanopia (equal in both sexes), it is extremely rare.

I was given some concessions for exams such as allowed to use coloured overlays and special tinted lenses, however I did find many of the lectures difficult to follow due to the use of colour on power point slides. While some tutors were excellent and altered colours, checking which colours I could see and distinguish between, some simply couldn't grasp the fact that colours such as yellow are totally invisible to me, and several colours (with a yellow tint or shade) look totally different to me.

So how have other colour blind people coped and found ways to "see" what they are meant to?

I'm not trying to troll or anything, but couldn't we all be slightly colourblind? :O I mean, we don't know how others see things - women apparently have a different visual experience to men, and surely it differs between people?

[AishaTara]

(Original post by Junaid96)
I'm not trying to troll or anything, but couldn't we all be slightly colourblind? :O I mean, we don't know how others see things - women apparently have a different visual experience to men, and surely it differs between people?

true, but when everyone is telling you that one thing is red and the other is blue, but they look exactly the same too you so you can't understand what they mean that would be confusing. Secondly, eye scans and tests etc.
Yes maybe your right, but it would be a very very minor colour blindness the rest of us suffer if we dont even notice it.

[Jack22031994]

I am with green and brown mostly and sometimes blue & purple & red(depending on shade), hadn't effected me for A levels and shouldn't for degree as I'm not doing an artistic course


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[Jack22031994]

(Original post by Jack22031994)
I am with green and brown mostly and sometimes blue & purple & redb(depending on shade), hadn't effected me for A levels and shouldn't for degree as I'm not doing an artistic course


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[Labqueen]

(Original post by threeportdrift)
Totally non-expert view here, but I regularly used to revise a colleague's powerpoint presentations because he was colour blind and used to produce slides in ranges of pastel pinks and oranges. Not such a good look in a military environment!

Could you devise a custom style in Word that maximised the difference of colours for your vision, and then send it to individual lecturers asking them to use it? I suppose you'd want to check it against standard colour vision, but it shouldn't be too difficult to come up with a standard colour scheme that would work in Word and Powerpoint and was useful to all colour visions. Not many graphs/tables etc need more than about 6 colours.

It is a good idea however one system wouldn't be suitable for all verions of colour blindness, you would need a specific system for each variation. As in I see all red colours normal and some greens, however red/green colour blind don't. The thing about colour blindness is that all colours of the spectrum are affected as the cone specific to that colour is missing, so it has an impact on everything.
These two images look exactly the same to me, to other types of colour defect there will be differences, to normal vision most likely they will be totally different.

On these spectrums relating to various forms of colour vision defect. There are large sections with no colour, especially on the protanopia, from around 600 to 500 there is either white or a very very pale pink. To me the top and the bottom spectrums are almost identical, only real difference being around 500 the top spectrum is darker than the bottom.

Now someone with monochromassy there is no colour sensation, they would only see shades of black, white and grey.

As well as all of these you have ones in between where they are lacking a specific cone but they are able to merge colours and see some shades. So trying to do one custom system wouldn't work for everyone. The only way it could be done would be to have everything in black, white and grey shades but then so many images do require a colour coding to enable clear explanation which you may find difficult using those 3 shades.

[threeportdrift]

(Original post by Labqueen)
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I get that, but colour blindness is relatively rare and there are unlikely to be more than one of you in a class. If there are, get together and design a colour scheme that works best for both of you.

I was just thinking that for the Powerpoint/Word issue, if you devised your own scheme it could be something you kept with you and gave to specific lecturers at the beginning of the year. Technically, if you did that, they would be obliged to use it as it is a reasonable adjustment

[Labqueen]

I understand what you're getting at now.

Right at the start of the course the disability service did contact all tutors and request that images did not contain the colour yellow and to limit certain other colours. This worked well in some lectures however in others it wasn't possible. To be specific one tutor's attitude was he would continue his normal slides and I was to put my hand up if unable to "see" the images, when I did so he stated "well it's obvious" and disregarded me asking for a clearer explanation. On the other hand I had a fantastic tutor, she truly was brilliant. She taught genetics and she removed all colour from one slide in a presentation. The slide happened to be a very indepth diagram, she'd only left in the colour aqua on one small section. Then she gave her lecture and on that slide kept referring to "the yellow section is this, blue is that, green is this", obviously the class couldn't see any of the colours she referred to and found that extremely difficult to follow. This helped my tutor understand how difficult it is to follow an explanation where they refer to colours.

It was tried to use only colours which I can see, however this did make it difficult for others in the class to follow, and also difficult for the tutors as they found the colour range to be very limiting, so instead it was decided that the images would remain the same so the majority could see it and I would print out at home a copy of the powerpoint for my own use and then discuss with the tutor after each lecture any points which I had been unable to see.

[threeportdrift]

(Original post by Labqueen)
To be specific one tutor's attitude was he would continue his normal slides and I was to put my hand up if unable to "see" the images, when I did so he stated "well it's obvious" and disregarded me asking for a clearer explanation.

Sounds like a pretty poor effort to me. It's not exactly difficult to change colours in Word or Powerpoint, to put textures and patterns into colours, to change line thickness and dots, dashes etc and above all, to put a legend in so that people can compare 'colours' however they perceive them against a list of examples and words.

[Labqueen]

(Original post by threeportdrift)
Sounds like a pretty poor effort to me. It's not exactly difficult to change colours in Word or Powerpoint, to put textures and patterns into colours, to change line thickness and dots, dashes etc and above all, to put a legend in so that people can compare 'colours' however they perceive them against a list of examples and words.

It is pretty easy to change things, even they used colours but had a letter "y" or "g" etc for each colour, then so much easier to follow. Sadly some tutors see that any change is too much.

I was lucky though. I have some good friends in class and they would lean over and say, it's yellow or green or orange and so on. When my husband was home on leave he, and we had access to the powerpoint slides the night or two before a lecture, he would sit and change colours for me to ones I can see easier.

We didn't always have access to the powerpoint slide before a lecture as some tutors felt a student then wouldn't bother attending the lecture if they had the slides. We also had tutors who flatly refused to give any hand outs to prevent people not turning up and their mates picking up a copy for them.

I did manage but the support and understanding from some tutors could be improved.