ARTICLE SUMMARY: There are an estimated 350 million people in the world that have color vision deficiency. 1 in 12 men are color blind (8%). 1 in 200 women are color blind (0.5%).
That’s a lot of people. As designers we have a responsibility to make sure our products and services are just as accessible to the visually impaired as they are to everyone else.
“Chasing Rainbows” by Andy Baio is an introduction to different types of color blindness and how they affect the people with it. He talks about
- Trichromacy
- Dichromacy
- Protanopia
When designing, each type of color vision deficiency comes with its own set of limitations that need to be taken into consideration, not an easy task, but not that hard either.
As Andy says, “Accessibility in design is a form of empathy: trying to reach beyond your own personal perspective to try to understand other people who, in this case, very literally don’t see the world the same way you do.”
The nice thing about this article is it gives you the visuals you need to see in order to fully experience and appreciate their disability and help you design accordingly.
Designing for accessibility not only good for business, but, more importantly it is the right thing to do.
Let us know what you think in the comments.
