Comment by bobthepanda
5 days ago
At least for me (I am red green colorblind), I have the mental model to help me know culturally what is "red" (an apple) and what is "green" (a pine tree) but I start having issues the moment red and green start appearing next to each other in which case they just look like muddy different shades if I squint very hard.
It is hard to explain because much of our modern signage and whatnot has been designed with colorblindness in mind; most "green" traffic lights, for example, are green-whitish specifically to address colorblindness. But not all of it; when I used to work in IT (as in literal computer diagnostics) it was pretty impossible for me to ascertain any particular diagnostic light.
Something similar here:
- Part of my colorblindness seems to be a language thing, especially as a non native speaker of English: is that status light "amber" or is it just on? (here it it obviously helps if there is a full rack and one of them sticks out)
- another part is about recognizing the colors of tiny dots (lanterns, specks on the floor). I can sometimes clearly see the same color if there is a cm^2 or a m^2 of it, no problem, but a tiny dot of the same color looks generic grey or generic yellow
- and another part, probably related to the first one, is just noticing: for example the mixed waste bins are (very dark) green but until my wife thought I joked I didn't notice. Now it is very obvious
- then there is the obviously actual color blind part: when a doctor hands me the color splatters with images I don't see every one of them and on some I see the wrong numbers
- another obvious clue there is something I actually cannot see: when I use colorblind simulation in digital image manipulation programs it feels like nothing happens
- bonus 1: my house is clearly (IMO) green, but sometimes this has other people including people with supposedly full color vision confused, which means either I see the green because it isn't drowned in another nuance that other people see or there is something even funnier going on with my color vision
- bonus 2: It feels like it is never pitch dark for me, as long as I am outdoors. (Caves, bunkers and technical rooms without lights can be though.)