Understanding the Reality of Living with Colorblindness
Living with colorblindness affects more than just how someone sees the world — it impacts how they experience daily life. For the 350 million people worldwide with some form of color vision deficiency, everyday tasks can turn into frustrating puzzles. Whether you’re trying to decipher a transit map, follow color-coded charts, or navigate digital interfaces, colorblindness adds an invisible barrier. And if you’ve ever wondered what it’s really like to be colorblind, here’s a firsthand look into the subtle — and not-so-subtle — ways the world often fails to accommodate this condition.
From struggling to distinguish low airfare deals on travel websites to missing important signals like red or green lights in parking garages, these seemingly minor obstacles compound into a consistent daily friction. Red-green colorblindness (deuteranopia), one of the most common forms, makes it incredibly hard to interpret design choices based solely on color. Unfortunately, many modern UI/UX systems, signage, and tools are built without this in mind. And while it may not be a disability in the traditional sense, living with colorblindness often means being excluded from basic conveniences — simply because someone didn’t test with accessibility in mind.
Everyday Frustrations with Color-Coded Systems
For colorblind individuals, visual cues that others take for granted often feel like riddles. Take travel booking websites like Kayak, for example. Their fare calendar typically highlights the cheapest prices in green, moderate in orange, and the most expensive in red. If you’re colorblind, especially with red-green deficiency, this vital pricing information becomes indecipherable. What others interpret at a glance, you have to decode through tedious trial and error or technical hacks like browser developer tools to manually change the color palette.
Then there’s the issue of wayfinding — particularly in parking garages, airports, and public transportation. Lights meant to signal availability, danger, or priority can all blend together. If a garage uses red and green lights to indicate open spots, a person with colorblindness may see both as identical. These color-based signals often lack backup symbols or text, making them inaccessible. Living with colorblindness turns a simple task like finding a parking space into a confusing and time-consuming ordeal. And when design overlooks accessibility, it unintentionally creates a system of exclusion.
When Colorblindness Limits Career and Lifestyle Choices
While many people can navigate around the inconveniences of colorblindness, it can also impose significant professional limitations. Careers that rely on color-based decisions or visual accuracy — such as pilots, train conductors, surgeons, electricians, and graphic designers — may be out of reach for colorblind individuals. Imagine trying to interpret skin rashes as a doctor, read electrical wiring as an engineer, or analyze tissue samples in a lab when you can’t reliably distinguish colors. It’s not about lack of intelligence or talent — it’s about not being able to trust what your eyes perceive.
Even outside of medical or technical fields, living with colorblindness can interfere with job performance. Surveyors, construction workers, marketing professionals, and IT specialists can all encounter moments when crucial information is color-coded — and therefore hidden from them. Many opt to build personal workarounds, use apps that simulate standard vision, or collaborate with color-sighted colleagues to fill the gap. But should the burden really fall on them? Better accessibility in design isn’t just inclusive — it’s essential.
Designing a Color-Inclusive World for the Future
Fortunately, awareness around inclusive design is growing. As conversations about accessibility become more central in tech and product development, designers are beginning to test for color vision deficiencies during development. Tools like the Chrome DevTools colorblind simulator, Coblis (Color Blindness Simulator), and accessibility plug-ins for Figma or Adobe XD allow teams to preview how interfaces appear to colorblind users. Adding labels, patterns, or icons alongside color cues is one of the simplest and most effective fixes — yet it’s often overlooked.
Inclusive design doesn’t mean eliminating color — it means providing redundancy in visual information. For example, pairing red-green indicators with shapes or text means users get the same message, regardless of how they see color. When companies build products and services that account for how 8% of men and 0.5% of women see the world, they’re not just helping the colorblind — they’re making things clearer and more usable for everyone. Living with colorblindness shouldn’t feel like an endless scavenger hunt. With thoughtful, inclusive design, it doesn’t have to be.
Embracing Empathy in Design
Living with colorblindness means constantly adjusting to a world that wasn’t built with your perspective in mind. It’s more than a visual quirk — it’s an experience shaped by exclusion and adaptation. But the good news? Change is possible. When designers, developers, and decision-makers prioritize accessibility, they not only serve millions of colorblind users but also champion a future where no one is left out due to something as basic — yet invisible — as how they see color.