Site design and Color Blindness

[Blackicicle]

Quite a while back, I remember reading somewhere or hearing from someone that 30% of all men are color blind. Actually I can't really remember the exact figure but I remember it was ridiculously high.

I'm not quite sure, which color(s) if any can't be seen by color blind people but for some reason, I have it in my head that is greens and blues.

My question is: Does anyone take this matter into consideration when choosing the colors to work with in the development stage of the website building process?

I will do a little research on the subject, but if anyone knows anything about this then please add your imput.

[Niko Holopainen]

Hey blackicile, hope this helps.

In my current site this was not taken into account but for the now performed reconstruction accessibility in general and issues like color blindness have been taken into account.

I think the percentage is one half of that (around 16% of males, may vary on geographical location) but this is just a hunch - I can't remember the facts.

Color blindness doesn't prevent the colour blind person from seeing colors (red, yellow, mainly) - instead the colors blend into the background with varying intensity, depending on the color blindness. Many people are actually unaware if they are partially color blind and it's usually discovered during driving license vision tests, military enlistment tests etc.

Ya. I ramble again. Back to the issue at hand.

Designing for possibly partially color blind audience doesn't actually require that reds and yellows aren't used. What it requires is that contrast between text and background is relatively high (eg. when using light grey background, don't use dark grey text but black instead). Since even colorblind-red will see the contrast, the color doesn't disappear - it fades into the surrounding color.

In a similar manner, slightly deviating from the subject - the site I'm working on has been designed bearing accesibility in mind: page navigation is simple (6 part main menu+side menu of only a couple objects), it's at most <30kb and will load on mobiles, braille etc. quickly but without the css formatting (then again, so will everyone else's). I've yet to implement the key navigation but that too will come.

Last but least, the obvious accesibility issues: caption and headers on tables, title tags on non-main navigational (e.g. none in the main navigation which is mostly repeated on every page) links, links with readily discernible appearance (I use darker color with "hover" effect of underline but may resort even to underlines).

I'll post a review request when the reconstruction is done in a couple weeks.

[eightfifteen]

30%, eh? THat explains alot of the sites out there.

[Blackicicle]

Lol Sorry eightfifteen I was just estimating. :)

Thanks for the info NikoH, very insightful, I hope to see the site you're working on soon.

[Niko Holopainen]

Here's a quickie Google find, as always one should reference several sources since the credibility can't be accounted to (at least it's hard for me to distinguish an US based "authority" from another).

http://www.hhmi.org/senses/b130.html

[Jekyl]

As a color blind guy who also does some web work, here's my take on it.....

I am technically Red/Green blind. This is the most common form of the 'handicap'. My taste leans towards very contrasting colors - yellow on black, that sort of thing. I can tell you that red fonts on a black background are very difficult for me to read.

Generally summed up, if you're interested in making sure the 30% (? !) can see your site well, I would recommend staying away from dark fonts on dark backgrounds. To us CB folks, green, purple, red and brown are considered dark colors.
Code accordingly. Hope this helps!

John

[jaca]

Jekyl said it before I could. Yes red and green are the most common colours. I've known men who are partial and red and green is common. Some are totally colour blind.

When I desing I stay away from that combination. I also try have a good contrast for those who have real problems.

I have worked on sites that I did not design, and there are a good number of people that will not take advice on the issue of colour blindness. One site I worked on was red/green/yellow. Sorry Jekyl!

[G[dot]com]

Try this test to find out for yourself how color blind people see it any URL:

http://colorfilter.wickline.org/

It also explains that there are different types of color blindness. Hope it helps,

Gi

[Blackicicle]

You don't have to answer if you don't wish to... and although this is a bit off topic I would just like to know Jekyl... How did you find out you were color blind?

The link you posted NikoH: http://www.hhmi.org/senses/b130.html
Was a very good read. After reading it, I decided to google "tests for color blindness" and "detecting color blindness" as it would be interesting to find the methods used by the professionals.

I came across (amoung others):
http://www.toledo-bend.com/colorblind/Ishihara.html
http://www.archimedes-lab.org/colorblindnesstest.html
http://www.psych.utoronto.ca/museum/holmgren.htm

The testing methods used on some of those sites listed above. I've actually seen before (On optical illusion sites) but I had no idea that they had a real world purpose.

Again... Knowing that I'm trailing way of track here, I'm particularly interested in the article on the site that was posted dealing with "Blindness to Motion" where the woman would pour her coffe and

the column of fluid flowing from the spout appeared frozen, like a waterfall turned to ice

I didn't even know that this was possible. Anyway thanks all for the replies and info.

[MartyS]

When it comes to color blindness there are 2 kinds because of the 2 kinds of receptors in the eyes -- red/green and blue/yellow. Men are more apt to be color blind than women, and red/green receptors (cones) are more apt to be defective than the blue/yellow.

In the U.S. they have designed traffic lights with this knowledge in mind because the reds have other colors mixed in and the red is always on top as another visual reminder.