I know, it's unusual, but her maternal grandmother is color blind as well (as much as she likes to deny it). Apparently, Tova is red-green color blind. Havah's been telling me for years that she thought so, but today was the first time we found out for sure.
Could be worse, I know, but I'm bummed for her.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
saxon75 is colorblind. I think also red-green (it's the most common, neh?)
Posted by The Pixiest (Member # 1863) on :
I'm sorry to hear that Lisa =( I hope Tova doesn't notice it too much. Though I guess if she's never seen a difference between red and green she doesn't know there's anything to miss.
Pix
Posted by GeronL (Member # 9674) on :
quote:Havah's been telling me for years that she thought so, but today was the first time we found out for sure
she was wearing a redneck flannel and you just knew?
Posted by GeronL (Member # 9674) on :
That was a joke. Sorry to hear that.
You'll cope I am sure. Red and Green, wow.
Posted by Demonstrocity (Member # 9579) on :
I'm also red/green colorblind. At this point in my life, though, I'm much more amused than upset by it.
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
Note: shirt may be offensive.
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
She will need to be extra careful when driving. Color is a more salient cue than "position" on a streetlight or, of course, a flashing red warning signal.
Oh, and Mighty Cow, there's no "may be" about it.
Posted by Lord Solar Macharius (Member # 7775) on :
One of my good friends is some kind of colour blind. As I understand it, he sees most dark colours as black and so tends to where vibrant yellows and blues. Which is funny, because he's into death metal and stuff.
Red/green colour blind sounds kind of cool though. You get to live on Mars and dream of blasting off to that green ball of dirt in the sky.
Posted by starLisa (Member # 8384) on :
What they told us was that red-green colorblindness isn't about red and green specifically. That it means she can't distinguish between pairs of colors at the same color intensity. She covers it well, though. I've never been convinced of it until now.
Posted by Primal Curve (Member # 3587) on :
I'm colorblind. I can still see colors, though, folks. They just tend to blur when they're very similar. I have a hard time with video games that use a lime-ish green along with yellow. Can't tell them apart half the time.
Stoplights, though, Bob, are not a problem in the least. The colors are highly-contrasting.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
My husband and I have been listening to some music from a band called Colorblind James. They are no longer a band, due to the death of Colorblind James himself(Chuck Cuminelli)
Also, there is a poignant scene in "Little Miss Sunshine" involving colorblindness.
Posted by Demonstrocity (Member # 9579) on :
What they told us was that red-green colorblindness isn't about red and green specifically. That it means she can't distinguish between pairs of colors at the same color intensity. She covers it well, though. I've never been convinced of it until now.
Really? Weird.
My color vision other than shades of red and green is fine, but I see ALL shades of red/green as gray, and cannot distinguish the two.
Posted by GeronL (Member # 9674) on :
I liked the Red Green Show btw
Posted by pH (Member # 1350) on :
Andrew, do you see redheads as grey? That would be amusing.
-pH
Posted by Soara (Member # 6729) on :
I don't get it...does she see red and green as the same color? And if so, is it red or green?
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
Two of my three brothers are colorblind. It meant that one of them couldn't be the lighting designer for the theatre like he wanted, but besides that there's no discernable handicap.
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
quote:Stoplights, though, Bob, are not a problem in the least. The colors are highly-contrasting.
Ah...makes sense that not every person with red/green deficiencies would have trouble with traffic signals. Some do, though.
Thanks for the reminder.
Here's a link on the gradations of color-blindness: see bottom
Some people see red as black, rare instances people can't distinguish red or yellow.
Depending on the severity, there are folks who would be relying on brightness or saturation only to decide if a traffic signal is displaying red or green. But that's pretty rare apparently.
Posted by starLisa (Member # 8384) on :
quote:Originally posted by Soara: I don't get it...does she see red and green as the same color? And if so, is it red or green?
Well, if she did see the two as the same color, I can't actually think of any way to know what it looks like to her. How would you do that?
"Tova, do red and green both look like red, or do they both look like green?"
"Yes."
<grin>
Posted by starLisa (Member # 8384) on :
Well, there's the nutty way they teach math nowadays. That's how my brother-in-law found out he was colorblind. They use these wacked out manipulables. I was born in 1963, so I just missed that lovely idea (and they wonder why kids can't handle math any more).
Tova is starting 1st grade on Monday, so we have to tell her teachers that she's colorblind. And we know what's going to happen. People are going to say, "That's impossible. It's a sex-linked trait; only boys can be colorblind." At which point, Havah is going to have to give them a lesson in genetics. It happens surprisingly often.
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
Yep, as genetic effects go, it's not that rare at all. It's just more prevalent in males because color vision needs one good copy of the genes and it's a sex-linked trait -- males only get one copy to start with.
Lisa, there are apparently more detailed tests they can do to determine how severe the colorblindness is. The type of red/green colorblindness will make a difference in Tova's perceptual realm, and determine which things she has trouble with: reading maps, detecting warnings on tri-color LED panels, traffic signals, etc.
Posted by ChevMalFet (Member # 9676) on :
quote:Originally posted by Demonstrocity:
quote:Originally posted by starLisa: Holy cow! That's actually hilarious.
What they told us was that red-green colorblindness isn't about red and green specifically. That it means she can't distinguish between pairs of colors at the same color intensity. She covers it well, though. I've never been convinced of it until now.
Really? Weird.
My color vision other than shades of red and green is fine, but I see ALL shades of red/green as gray, and cannot distinguish the two.
Is colorblindness an issue with the rods/cones, or signal path to the brain? I ask because I always assumed it was at the reception point, but I'm not so certain after this description of symptoms.
I know little to nothing of the biology of vision but understand at least superficially about color perception, where we see the contrast between red and green, between blue and yellow, and between light and dark. (And if I hunt it down I can probably track down the "wiring diagram" from signal path from the rods/cones to the brain if anyone's interested).
Posted by Primal Curve (Member # 3587) on :
I never colored in school. I used to always shade everything with the black crayon or pencils- drove my teachers mad.
Posted by Jeesh (Member # 9163) on :
My art teacher once had a student who was colorblind. She didn't realize it until she saw them making a colorwheel.
Posted by Palliard (Member # 8109) on :
Oddly, the majority of the people I know who work in the technical side of the phone business are red-green color blind. It's not the handicap you might suspect.
Perhaps you have a budding technician on your hands.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
Palliard: What if Lisa's sweet little girl has to disarm a bomb? HUH? Cut the red wire or the green wire? WHAT DO I DO?! How can one go through life knowing that they can't disarm a bomb should the need arise?
I'm not color blind at all, buy my wifes' good friend's husband is literally color blind to almost all color. To the point that he might as well have the eyes of a dog to be honest.
I honestly feel very bad for him, though I wonder what sort of an art critic he would make if he didnt have all those colors distracting him from the form and technique. (outside color blending obviously).
Posted by starLisa (Member # 8384) on :
Puppy-dog eyes?
Posted by Palliard (Member # 8109) on :
Well, if I was going to make a home-made bomb, I would swap the red and green wires anyway... but that's just me.
Most of the previously-mentioned phone-folks I know use a color chart to match the colors. From what they describe, it's not a simple matter of seeing things as shades of gray. I have some difficulty grasping how they actually percieve colors, but it doesn't seem to be a crippling handicap in a field that sorts connections according to a color code.
Posted by HollowEarth (Member # 2586) on :
quote:Originally posted by Soara: I don't get it...does she see red and green as the same color? And if so, is it red or green?
I love this question. You wouldn't ask this kind of question if some said they were dyslexic or illiterate, so why here? Do you honestly think its less offensive in this context? (For the record, I'm colorblind.)
Posted by Demonstrocity (Member # 9579) on :
quote:Originally posted by HollowEarth:
quote:Originally posted by Soara: I don't get it...does she see red and green as the same color? And if so, is it red or green?
I love this question. You wouldn't ask this kind of question if some said they were dyslexic or illiterate, so why here? Do you honestly think its less offensive in this context? (For the record, I'm colorblind.)
...what? I'm failing to see how this is offensive. I get asked this, or a similar variant, by every person who finds out I'm red/green colorblind. I've never seen it as offensive, just curiousity. It gets annoying, but I'd hardly call it offensive.
I've asked someone who was dyslexic about specific ways that condition affects them, with no offense intended, and none taken. I'm not sure what equivilant question you'd ask an illiterate person.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
My great-uncle got into an accident once because he was used to the streetlights being in a certain position-- and for some reason, a small town had them reversed. He went on the red, swerved to avoid an oncoming car, jumped the curve, and hit a signpost. (No injuries, thankfully.)
He went to court and the damages were reversed-- and they fixed their streetlights.
Posted by Dan_Frank (Member # 8488) on :
quote:I don't get it...does she see red and green as the same color? And if so, is it red or green?
Good friend of mine is colorblind in the red/green spectrum, but only mildly. He says he can see red. And he can see green. But if you have a small amount of red or green mixed with a large amount of the other, he sees it all as one color (the more prevalent one)
I didn't know until we were gathering broken water balloons after my nephew's birthday party. He kept missing red balloons, because they blended in with the grass.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
My grandmother, father and I are all colorblind. Hopefully your daughter is like me and not my father and grandmother. They have full-blown gray scale red-green colorblindness, but I just have difficulties with the more vague and nuanced shades you wouldn't find in an 8-crayon box. (But I still fail those darn tests!) If I have some sort of reference, like something that I know is red or green then I can usually pick out which one I'm looking at.
We're all pretty fine specimens. I don't think it's really a handicap; it's more of an oddity. One of my most memorable (traumatic?) experiences was coloring the sky purple in grade school. Make sure her crayons are labeled! Posted by Mrs.M (Member # 2943) on :
Andrew is red/green colorblind, too. He can sometimes distinguish them and sometimes not. He rarely identifies pink or light green correctly, though (which is kind of funny because those are my nursery colors and the colors I dress Aerin in). He has never correctly identified purple and sees pink as beige most of the time.
It hasn't affected his life that much - he sees traffic lights just fine. He wanted to join the Air Force when he was younger and that wasn't possible, but I don't see that being a problem for Tova. He did have a lot of trouble in chem lab - he had to constantly ask his lab partner if their mixture was the right color. He had an awful time in college chem lab where they didn't have lab partners. Other than that, he's just had to deal with the annoyance of people's questions - "You're colorblind? Do you see in black and white? What color is this? How about this? Wrong! Ha Ha Ha." And so on.
Posted by starLisa (Member # 8384) on :
quote:Originally posted by Primal Curve: I never colored in school. I used to always shade everything with the black crayon or pencils- drove my teachers mad.
I only colored when they made me. I couldn't stay inside the lines for my life, until my little brother taught me the technique of following the outline until you have a much thicker border. Even then, it was touch and go.
Posted by starLisa (Member # 8384) on :
quote:Originally posted by jennabean: My grandmother, father and I are all colorblind. Hopefully your daughter is like me and not my father and grandmother. They have full-blown gray scale red-green colorblindness, but I just have difficulties with the more vague and nuanced shades you wouldn't find in an 8-crayon box. (But I still fail those darn tests!) If I have some sort of reference, like something that I know is red or green then I can usually pick out which one I'm looking at.
We're all pretty fine specimens. I don't think it's really a handicap; it's more of an oddity. One of my most memorable (traumatic?) experiences was coloring the sky purple in grade school. Make sure her crayons are labeled!
Tova's pretty good at matching colors. I think it's mostly when they're grouped together and of the same intensity that she has the problem.
Posted by starLisa (Member # 8384) on :
See, I have a problem with this article. There are three pictures on the right hand side of the page. From the captions, it sounds like they're all supposed to contain the same number.
But I see an 83 in the top box, a 56 in the bottom box, and I can sorta kinda make out a 37 in the middle box. Are they messing with me, or what? Does anyone here see the same thing in all three boxes?
Posted by Theaca (Member # 8325) on :
if you click on the picture it comes up in a new page and tells you what the number is supposed to be. Turns out you are right about each number. I think.
Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :
It doesn't say that they're the same number, but the second caption isn't worded very well. They mean that the pictures are similar in that they each contain a 2-digit number, not that the numbers themselves are similar. Though I can very easily see how you could read it that way, because of the poor phrasing.
--Enigmatic
Posted by The Pixiest (Member # 1863) on :
umm.. I can see the numbers but it was kinda hard to make out.. were they supposed to be hard to make out or should I see a doctor?
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote:Originally posted by Enigmatic: It doesn't say that they're the same number, but the second caption isn't worded very well. They mean that the pictures are similar in that they each contain a 2-digit number, not that the numbers themselves are similar. Though I can very easily see how you could read it that way, because of the poor phrasing.
Too bad it's not possible to edit that so it's better worded.
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
I can hardly see the numbers as well, and I have excellent color vision. I think the particular examples are not particularly well done. Either that, or you only have to have the slightest difficulty with color to miss them. Doesn't seem like a very meaningful test.
I found a couple of other online tests which have shapes/numbers that are all obvious to me. I'm not sure how they're seen by color blind individuals.
Edit: I just realized how messed up it would be if someone made a color-blindness testing page, and gave people incorrect answers. You saw a 29? I don't know what you're talking about, that should be 31.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
I expect that no online test will be particularly useful. Too much variation with video cards and monitors.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
quote:From the captions, it sounds like they're all supposed to contain the same number.
But I see an 83 in the top box, a 56 in the bottom box, and I can sorta kinda make out a 37 in the middle box. Are they messing with me, or what? Does anyone here see the same thing in all three boxes?
No messin' -- they're all different numbers. I reworded it to avoid this confusion!
Posted by dkw (Member # 3264) on :
The numbers in the Wiki article are all very distinct to me. Not hard to make out at all.
Posted by Gwen (Member # 9551) on :
quote:Other than that, he's just had to deal with the annoyance of people's questions - "You're colorblind? Do you see in black and white? What color is this? How about this? Wrong! Ha Ha Ha." And so on.
Well, up to the "what color is this? How about this? Wrong! Ha Ha Ha" part, the annoyance would, I'd think, be the repetition of the questions.
I'm nearsighted (really, really, nearsighted--ever wondered what it's like to not be able to read the E on top of the sign from twenty feet away?) and wear glasses full-time. The most irritating question? "Are you blind with your glasses off?" I've been asked that before so many times, and yet I persist in believing that surely the next person to inquire about my eye condition will realize that it's not possible to correct blindness externally through lenses. (There are ways inside of the brain, and I remember reading about ways that someone can train to interpret I think electrical impulses on the tongue or something like that well enough to replace vision that they can actually drive a car, but a wire frame holding two clear lenses together ain't gonna do it, folks.) So I never come up with a sufficiently scathing response.
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
My mother-in-law wears hearing aides. She once took my glasses and tried them on and exclaimed that the glasses were so strong that I must be almost blind. I took her hearing aide and tried it on and told her that it was so strong that she must be almost deaf. My husband (who uses a wheelchair) was in the room at the time and thought the whole thing was hilarious. We both turned on him and reminded him that he was not one to talk.
Ah, good times!
(Uh, what were we talking about?)
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
quote:My mother-in-law wears hearing aides.
I have this vision of her dragging two women around as they cling to her upper arms. Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
Am I wrong in thinking that some people who are "legally" blind wear glasses? They're not blind in the literal sense, but in the sense that they "qualify" as being blind because their vision is so poor?
Posted by dkw (Member # 3264) on :
You are correct that "legally blind" does not necessarily mean "can't see at all." But part of the definition is that the vision is not correctable to a certain level, even with lenses. So even though my vision is bad enough to qualify for blindness if it wasn't correctable* I'm not considered "blind" even without my glasses because it is correctable with lenses.
*Mine's even worse than what Gwen described -- not only can I not read the big "E," I can't even tell there's a chart on the wall unless the wall is painted a really dark color and the blurry light spot stands out.
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