It’s college football season now and I’m hoping to sponsor the colorblindguy.com bowl game for next year. As a challenge, players on both teams will wear the same uniforms. It will not be played by the teams with the best records but the best coaching. No numbers, or names allowed. Players will be allowed to use creative ways to indicate which team they are on–sounds, running with hands in the air etc..
It’s like when John Lennon would play chess with all pieces being the same color. When I coached my son, I could not distinguish between my blue team and the opposing purple team. Some may know about the game between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets that created viewing problems for colorblind people. #colorblindguy  #colorblind

Being a colorblindguy does limit us in some ways. Certain careers are most likely off limits and it’s important to know up front that’s the case. In the movie “Life Without Color”, you see a few people who were devastated when they learned they couldn’t fulfill their dream career. The careers included working as an FBI agent–providing accurate descriptions was the issue– and pilots–interpreting the lights on a runway was the issue. The guys were in their 20’s and they were unaware they were colorblind.

So it’s important, especially for youngsters, to know if they are colorblind. Teachers use colors all the time for activities and the colorblindguys may  feel “stupid” when it’s just a problem with their vision. Here’s a great movie from colourawareness.org. It provides many examples that colorblindguys face during school.

When you hear about colorblindguys expressing their situation, they often mention being “embarrassed” or “not wanting to admit it”. It does seem like we are missing out on some fun–sunsets and changing foliage being on the list. However, since we were born this way, we should make the most of it.

Colorblindguys are able to overcome obstacles. Two stellar examples are Loren Long and Paul Scott Canavan who have succeeded in the art world.
Loren Long–Otis the Tractor and illustrator for former President Obama and Madonna.

oh hey, now that I'm just working for myself and some amazing clients, I feel comfortable talking about a big old thing which has plagued me throughout my life and career as an artist and art director:

I am colourblind.

Like, really quite colourblind. pic.twitter.com/BYnpZLBXOr

— Paul Scott Canavan (@abigbat) August 2, 2019

Please contribute your thoughts to this subject.

Please contribute your thoughts about your least favorite things….

Category	Title Holder	Rationale	Image
Lights	computer battery indicator	Green, orange or red?
Flower	Christmas Cactus	Despite its name, there’s nothing to celebrate with this plant that disguises its flower.
Insect	Green Head Fly	Not only does the green seem subdued, they hurt when they bite you.
Charts	certain Excel charts	Given some time, a colorblindguy can probably figure this out. But it wasn’t intended to be puzzling.
Hair	Dyed Green	Colorblindguys realize that when people dye their hair green, it’s meant to make a statement. Whatever the statement is intended to be, goes silent for a colorblindguy.
Flower	Christmas Cactus	Despite its name, there’s nothing to celebrate with this plant that disguises its flower.

 

I hope you will contribute a story about a something related to colorblindness here!

We need to laugh at ourselves as we cope in a color coded world.