Web design and colour blindness

Web designers need to understand the science behind colour blindness in the same way as colourists and industry professionals.

Colour blindness is not a problem as long as you understand how it affects individuals and compensate accordingly. This can be done using standard tests or simple colour science that is in the public domain. The point is, don’t assume everyone sees colour in the same way because  up to 8% of males are affected by colour blindness.

In the colour industry it is simply not acceptable for colour blindness of any kind to be overlooked. Anyone involved in visual colour assessment will be subject to standard tests like the Farnsworth Munsell 100 Hue test to establish any variances on colour perception.

The principle at work is to make allowances for individuals with colour blindness, not to exclude them from working in any particular role.

Web designers take note…

12th June 2013: As an addendum to this post, please read this interesting post by Steven Bradley on coding colour for websites.