Considering the Color-Blind
By Chuck Newman
Sometimes my wife will give me instructions like, "Go into the second drawer of the bureau and get the pink skirt." She shows up wondering what's taking me so long, and of course I'm getting everything wrong. She says, "That's the dresser, you're counting from the bottom, that's a dress, and it's peach." We can't agree on a color, yet neither of us is color-blind. I can't imagine what it's like for people who are.
Recently, I was surprised to learn that about 8 percent of men and 0.5 percent of women have some form of color blindness. For some Web sites that could translate to 1 in 12 visitors. That's a larger proportion of visitors than some other groups I consider when designing Web sites. The ratio of visitors viewing the Web with only 256 colors or a 640x480 pixel screen is usually less than 5 percent these days. Now include cross-browser support, older browsers, style sheets, and JavaScript in the mix. If you consider those issues when you design Web sites, you should consider your color-blind visitors, as well.
Forms of Color Blindness
I remember the first time I found out someone I knew was color-blind. I began asking him the color of things in the room. He was not amused. Still, I would like to ask him what my site looks like to him. At first, I imagined that color-blind people would see my Web site as if it were on a black- and-white TV. But I know that's not the case.
Most color-blind people—99 percent of themhave trouble distinguishing between red and green.
