Colour Blindness
Not sure if this has ever come up before, but I have a student struggling with the standard labels in the middle of the board. He (and it is typically a male condition) cannot tell the difference between red and green to the point that the vulnerability is not possible to tell. Of course it is possible to use a score card for identifying the vulnerability of each board and yes it is possible for partner to tell them the vulnerability (Before looking at their hand!), but its just fudging around the issue, and not solving the problem.
Has anyone had this issue ?
Has anyone got a solution ?
It strikes me that it would be very simple for the design to have a black dot screen behind the red but not behind the green, but how would we even raise it with a manufacturer ?
Comments
I wonder if you could print some sticky labels with ALL, N/S, E/W, None and stick the appropriate label on a blank area of the board?
My understanding is that some degree of colour blindness is quite common, I'd guess quite a few people muddle through this same problem. My first reaction was that maybe you could tell by the differing tones between red and green, but I'm not sure that's the case. Among the other ways mentioned, a light green might be distinguishable from a dark red for some colour blind players.
It certainly wouldn't be difficult to design the board labels to address the problem. Come to think of it, it probably wouldn't be that difficult to design and print custom board labels. I like Tim's suggestion of a simple set of labels with ALL, N/S etc. on them.
I have had this question raised before and if I remember correctly there are different brands of labels available that address this.
Have found them now and will attach, ready for printing on sticky labels.
@ James, I think you are right that most people can muddle through with enough differentiation, but this is the first time I have come across somebody who cannot tell the difference at all. There is a suggestion that some labels might be better than others - still not great, and I have not managed to establish if this is a difference between say Jannersten and Fleming or different print runs over the years by the same company.
@ Gordon, thanks for this, I was not aware of any such file. The problem that nearly all of us have is trying to perceive how somebody else will see the image, so I will ask my specific student how they perceive the image in that file.
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> @ Gordon, thanks for this, I was not aware of any such file. The problem that nearly all of us have is trying to perceive how somebody else will see the image, so I will ask my specific student how they perceive the image in that file.
Quite so, though the fact that the NV backgrounds are white and the Vul ones are not should help even if the colours are indistinguishable. Otherwise you could use this as a template and adjust the colours for your particular player’s needs.
https://ebay.io/m/fKMiDQ
I’ll also copy this tread to our two players to review and see if they have any other suggestions.
Kind regards Steve
Stay in touch Steve, I will keep going with this and fortunately I have a print technology background, so I want to eventually get the labels printed to a new format even if that means commissioning specific printing - although I am also hopeful I can try a different route. Of course what we want is a revised format for everyone - there is actually no reason to print and supply the current version of labels.
Before any of that we need to know what we need, so if you can get feedback to me on what your two see with Gordon's file, I will do the same and possibly come up with a new version.
Thanks Andy. It should be possible to make use of Bold too, to distinguish between the two.
I'm used to vulnerability stickers being red and white, rather than red and green.
The possibility of colour-blindness seems like a very good reason to use such a colour scheme. (There are a range of types of colour-blindness, but red and white are distinguishable by almost all colour-blind people.)
Another common trick to help colour-blind people is to use different textures/patterns in addition to different colours (e.g. you could show the status of being vulnerable by using red stripes rather than solid red).
I'm colour blind and struggle with the issue described. I have a score card handy but can't guarantee I always check. Unless I look at the score card every hand, i.e. even when I've no intention of bidding, I might be giving UI to partner. For example if I don't adopt a policy at looking every time then if I look and don't bid I'm telling partner I was thinking of bidding. So I try not to use but older boards (faded) especially are a real problem and have to use a scorecard.
My suggestion would be one vulnerability to be a white background with black text and the other Black background with white text.
I think this would solve the issue for the majority.