Color Blind Divers?

[PfcAJ]

This is really surprising to hear. We have consciously designed our products to be colorblind friendly for many years. Our for error displays on our computers, controllers, HUDs and NERDs all have specific flash patterns that do not rely on color to detect.

For example:

View attachment 436212

Bruce

I appreciate that shearwater incorporates methods for color blind people to see warnings on your computers.

I’m red/ green colorblind (I’ll fail those dot tests and even a FALANT) and I simply don’t use color to distinguish things in my life. I always use secondary ques. Frequent problems with blue and purple and greens and browns, depending on the ambient light and the shades involved.

The biggest thing for me in diving seems to be LEDs on battery chargers, rebreather HUDs, and navigation lights. Red/green/amber? Forget it. Cannot tell them apart reliably.

 

[Akimbo]

@PfcAJ

Could you provide some feedback on the questions in post #1. It will be useful to know what is difficult for you to read, what colors you can tell are different, and what you can't see at all.

 

[PfcAJ]

@PfcAJ

Could you provide some feedback on the questions in post #1. It will be useful to know what is difficult for you to read, what colors you can tell are different, and what you can't see at all.

I can see them all and they are all very distinct except dark red and black. I can see the difference, but it isn’t strikingly obvious to me.

 

[Trace Malinowski]

All shades in the four examples are distinct for me. As a kid my hero was Dallas Cowboy's QB Roger Staubach. He is color blind which is why his time in the US Navy was as a supply officer.

 

[Akimbo]

Several replies have sparked by curiosity. I found these Web sites especially helpful to understand the various conditions.

What is Color Blindness?

Coblis Color Blindness Simulator < really cool

Protanopia – Red-Green Color Blindness

IF I understand this simulation, no color vision deficiency makes particular colors completely invisible when viewed on a white background -- as-in text that is white-on-white. Please let me know if this correct or not.

 

[drbill]

I have moderate color blindness, and greatly prefer black text on white backgrounds. Yellow on white or gray on white are non-starters for me.

 

[Akimbo]

I have moderate color blindness, and greatly prefer black text on white backgrounds. Yellow on white or gray on white are non-starters for me.

I guess that quoted text like above is hard (dark gray on light gray). True?

How are the reds and blues on white? I am especially interested in if the technique used in this thread should be changed or has value for new threads.
Oxygen Toxicity Limits & Symptoms

 

[MichaelMc]

Please provide feedback on these samples. Can you tell they are all different and are some especially difficult to read or completely blank?

All 5 easily readable, and bold distinguishable. Yellow up thread is very hard to read on white. Not color vision deficient.

 

[Diver0001]

However, if I have understood Rob correctly, since he cannot perceive red at all, he won't see the flashing parts at all.

Brendon I need to qualify this.

It is not the case that red is invisible to me. However, red on a dark background is. Likewise red in a high light situations (referring to traffic lights etc) is also pretty much invisible to me. The reason that it's hard to see a traffic light when it's red in high light is because the housing of the traffic light is black and the default shade of the actual lamp in the traffic light is black (or some dark shade of something). In addition, red is a very "dim" colour to me.

This essentially turns what you see as bright-red-on-black situation into a black-on-black situation for me. This happens because I "see" red as what you would perceive as a dark shade of brown. Imagine how street lights would look to you if the "red" light was chocolate brown, especially in high light. This is why traffic lights can appear to be off when they are sometimes not. It's not that I can't see red. I just can't see red on a dark background. On a light background I see it fine but it looks almost black to me.

So what made the information on the Perdix "disappear" to me was this very same phenomenon. Key information turned red but the background of the computer was set to black. So again, this turned it into a black-on-black to me (or chocolate brown-on-black), which I overlooked until my buddy pointed it out.

As Bruce (@Shearwater ) pointed out, their products have specific colour blind modes. I did not know this. I had borrowed my friend's computer for this one dive to try it out because I was thinking of buying one. After that dive I rejected the idea because of this thing where key information turned red on a black background.

That said, I want to be fair to Shearwater here. I went diving with a friend last night who has a Perdix and he repeated what Bruce said above about the colour blind mode and showed me. That I was not aware of that is on ME, not on Shearwater. I will borrow his computer again and push it into giving me an alert but this time I will set it in colour blind mode. My hope is that this will solve all my problems. If that works, I sense an expensive purchase in my near future

R..

 

[Akimbo]

Thanks for the clarification on backgrounds and street lights, it makes sense how you explain it.

My hope is that this will solve all my problems. If that works, I sense an expensive purchase in my near future

I'm not sure if this is what you are referring to but I did notice this during my Google searches and wondered it it was effective:
Enchroma Glasses

I hate to derail my own thread but: On a related note, a friend and captain introduced me to Maui Jim polarized sunglasses. I have never seen glare reflected off waves reduced so much. They also are not as dark and seams to enhance colors -- far better than my tired old Raybans. They are pricy but some Costcos have a special wrap-around version for male mariners well under $100. I have only seen them sold in stores near large marinas. Worth a look if you spend much time at sea.