Understanding Disabilities Sensory Topics: Hearing | Blindness | Low Vision | Color-Blindness | Deaf-Blindness

People who are color-blind cannot make distinctions between certain color combinations.

Colorblind Comparison

Web Access Challenges

People who are color-blind face no difficulties when color-coding is used only for decorative purposes, but they become lost when information relies on color alone.

For example, many train lines, including the Washington, DC Metro System, use colors to identify different routes. If the colors on the route maps, station signage, and/or trains are not supplemented with text descriptions (for example "Red line"), people who are color-blind may not be able to find the correct train or route.

The How-To section of this Web site describes how to overcome this challenge.

Scenario

The Situation: In your Web-based course you provide a map of the United States, with various regions presented in different colors to indicate their demographic characteristics.

The Challenge: One of your students, Rob, informs you that he cannot distinguish between the colors because he is color-blind. Another student, Andrea, says she cannot access the content because she is using a monochrome monitor.

One Solution: Add indicators (e.g., stripes, dotted areas) that provide the demographic content to those who cannot distinguish the colors on the map. Your department or university's technical support staff may be able to help make these changes.

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