Problems At School
Problems Faced by Colorblind Children in School
Color is used extensively schools, particularly pre-school and primary school, to provide contrast and create interest, as a means of classification and to provide a stimulating environment. However, this could mean hindrance in learning for colorblind kids in school, because they are not able to distinguish accurately between all shades of red, green, orange yellow, grey, blue, purple and brown and can confuse other colours. Color blind children cannot read color-on-color reading books but many pre-school and primary school books and worksheets are designed this way.
Normal Vision
Deuteranopia
Protanopia
Tritanopia
Examples of how the condition can cause problems at school.
- John is working in his reading workbook. The directions to one item say to draw a line to the red ball. The other ball is brown. Both colors look alike to John, so he guesses. The teacher reminds him not to be careless.
- A teacher is writing vocabulary words on a green chalk board with yellow chalk in mid-afternoon. There is a glare on the board from unshaded windows. Peter is sitting so that the glare diminishes the figure-ground contrast. The teacher wonders why he is copying from a neighbor's paper.
- Tommy ordinarily seems to enjoy reading aloud. Today, however, he doesn't volunteer and balks when the teacher calls on him to read. The poem in the reader is printed in blue on a purple background.
- Susan, a bright and articulate youngster, was asked to go to the front of the class and read from the blue green book on the teachers' desk. She went to the front of the class and just stood there looking at the pile of different colored books. Not knowing which one to pickup, she started to cry.
- T.J. was very out going in pre-school & kindergarten. He loved to wave his arms and volunteer to answer questions the teacher asked. The only time he did not volunteer answers was when it came to learning or identifying his colors. A lot of the colors looked the same to him. They just had different names.
- The kindergarten teacher notices the kids during art class teasing Jimmy. The other kids think it is funny that Jimmy's stick people have green faces.
- The kids at school told the teacher Jeff was cheating during kick ball. They said he would break the rules by kicking the ball when it was out of bounds. They accusingly stated the boundary lines on the green grass were clearly marked with orange chalk. Jeff, rather than admitting he could not see the boundary line, simply quit playing with the other kids during recess.