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Are these orange colors easily recognizable by color blindness?

fwlr 4y ago
When it comes to colorblindness, it doesn’t make much sense to ask if a single color is recognizable. Color blindness is a difficulty in distinguishing between different colors - some pairs of colors that are visibly contrasting to normal sight may not be visibly contrasting to colorblind sight, such as red/brown, brown/green, and red/green. There are three main mechanisms of colorblindness, corresponding to the three main types of light receptors in the eye: deutan (green-weak), protan (red-weak), and tritan (“blue-weak”, although this is not a common term). About three quarters of color vision issues are deutan, one quarter is protan, less than 1% is tritan. When you go out into the world and start interacting with contrasting color pairs, both green-weak and red-weak color vision cashes out as “red-green colorblindness”, while blue-weak cashes out as “blue-green colorblindness”. None of these have issues distinguishing yellow/orange from blue. Presumably this is actually the motivation for the international air safety color being orange, as it’s easily distinguishable from blue sky.
- eru 4y ago
  To add an anecdote to your great general explanation: I'm red-green colour blind, and I can see the International Orange against most backgrounds. Keep in mind that I can judge saturation and brightness just fine, and that's a big part of what makes that shade of orange stand out.
  - d1sxeyes 4y ago
    A further anecdote, I am also (slightly, not absolutely) red-green colour blind. Although I can distinguish between bright reds and greens, darker shades or in lower lights, I am unable to discern between reds and greens. I'm not always aware that there is a colour I have not correctly perceived, and may simply think that a colour is 'brown', where others clearly perceive it as red or green. However, it's very rare that this causes me problems. I suppose electrical work in low light might be risky, but then I would be taking extra steps to ensure I did not screw up (increasing lighting, asking someone to double check before I touch anything, etc.).

fwlr 4y ago

When it comes to colorblindness, it doesn’t make much sense to ask if a single color is recognizable. Color blindness is a difficulty in distinguishing between different colors - some pairs of colors that are visibly contrasting to normal sight may not be visibly contrasting to colorblind sight, such as red/brown, brown/green, and red/green. There are three main mechanisms of colorblindness, corresponding to the three main types of light receptors in the eye: deutan (green-weak), protan (red-weak), and tritan (“blue-weak”, although this is not a common term). About three quarters of color vision issues are deutan, one quarter is protan, less than 1% is tritan. When you go out into the world and start interacting with contrasting color pairs, both green-weak and red-weak color vision cashes out as “red-green colorblindness”, while blue-weak cashes out as “blue-green colorblindness”. None of these have issues distinguishing yellow/orange from blue. Presumably this is actually the motivation for the international air safety color being orange, as it’s easily distinguishable from blue sky.

eru 4y ago
To add an anecdote to your great general explanation: I'm red-green colour blind, and I can see the International Orange against most backgrounds. Keep in mind that I can judge saturation and brightness just fine, and that's a big part of what makes that shade of orange stand out.
- d1sxeyes 4y ago
  A further anecdote, I am also (slightly, not absolutely) red-green colour blind. Although I can distinguish between bright reds and greens, darker shades or in lower lights, I am unable to discern between reds and greens. I'm not always aware that there is a colour I have not correctly perceived, and may simply think that a colour is 'brown', where others clearly perceive it as red or green. However, it's very rare that this causes me problems. I suppose electrical work in low light might be risky, but then I would be taking extra steps to ensure I did not screw up (increasing lighting, asking someone to double check before I touch anything, etc.).