What Do You See?

One particularly difficult aspect of being colorblind is explaining it to others. Though not incredibly uncommon, colorblindness occurs rarely enough that when most people learn of my colorblindness, they express curiosity. Common responses include, "So what does red look like to you?" and "What color is this?"

My experience with colorblindness differs from what most people imagine. I don't have problems telling whether the stoplight is lit red or green. Nor am I vexed by not knowing automatically the color of each object I see. After twenty-some-odd years, one adapts to these things.

I do have difficulty with certain situations. I simply cannot distinguish ripe bananas from green ones, at least not without touching them. I also do not fully grasp the nuances of color that accompany items like my pair of "green bordering on grey" khaki pants—whether they appear to others as green or grey seems to depend on my shirt, my shoes, even my mood.

Sometimes I have trouble with my own gadgets. Recently, I used a cheap battery charger that had only one light as an indication of status, changing from yellow to orange when the battery had finished charging. It thus earned a well-deserved colorblind-friendliness rating of zero. (A better design that probably doesn't cost much more is to have a single light blink during charging, then go solid once it's done.)

Being colorblind isn't easy on one's spouse, either. From sorting socks to identifying which ties go with which pants, my wife is a saint indeed. When the bananas are looking ripe (at least they might be), or the battery charger is done (maybe), I need backup, and she is the first person I turn to.

Colorblindness has its pleasant side effects, too. For example, how many people do you know who can ingest green ketchup without a second glance? How about blue milk? I count these among my many talents. In fact, being colorblind has made me a lot less attentive to color in general. (A few hundred years ago, I suppose that this "talent" caused the deaths of plenty of people who ate the wrong root because of inattention to a color difference. Today, though, that doesn't seem to be much of a problem.)