Color Blindness Emulator

What is achromatopsia?

Achromatopsia means without color. Most achromats are rod monochromats. Complete rod monochromats have no color vision. While incomplete rod monochromats may have small traces of specific colors when the light and glare are 'just right.'
While we often describe the vision of complete achromats as seeing black and white or gray, the range of tones of gray when light is controlled can be quite stunning, like a fine black and white photograph.
Low Vision Centers of Indiana
Photo composition of tomatoes, paprika, jalapenos, grenada, strawberries that originally are red, seen with grey tones with achromatopsia
Red caption
Photo composition of avocados, kiwis, salad, broccoli, grapes, apples that originally are green/dark green, but seen as grey tones with achromatopsia
Green caption
Achromatopsia gives a large range of tones, therefore no issue to distinguish elements if the shade and contrast is present.
However with lighter shades such as yellow, the color contrast becomes a problem for reading and distinguish what is on a picture. Are you able to read this without underlining the text? :)
Photo composition of bananas, paprikas, lemons, mais that originally are yellow, but seen as grey tones with achromatopsia
Yellow caption
Photo composition of aubergines, figs, blueberries, grapes that originally are purple, but seen as grey tones with achromatopsia
Purple caption
Similarly to the green and blue captions, if the shade and contrast is sufficient, reading and identifying elements on pictures is easy.
Similarly to the green and purple captions, if the shade and contrast is sufficient, reading and identifying elements on pictures is easy.
Photo composition under the sea with a turtle, coral reef in the background. The original colors are between light blue and green, but seen as grey tones with achromatopsia.
Blue caption

Color recap with achromatopsia

Photo composition of tomatoes, paprika, jalapenos, grenada, strawberries that originally are red, seen with grey tones with achromatopsia
Red caption
Photo composition of avocados, kiwis, salad, broccoli, grapes, apples that originally are green/dark green, but seen as grey tones with achromatopsia
Green caption
Photo composition of bananas, paprikas, lemons, mais that originally are yellow, but seen as grey tones with achromatopsia
Yellow caption
Photo composition of aubergines, figs, blueberries, grapes that originally are purple, but seen as grey tones with achromatopsia
Purple caption
Photo composition under the sea with a turtle, coral reef in the background. The original colors are between light blue and green, but seen as grey tones with achromatopsia.
Blue caption

Colors & Design

Emulating real life examples with colorblindness

Communicating message with colours

Name Jean
Email jean@doe
Password

One common mistake is to assume colors can do the job for actions such as showing valid or invalid inputs.

In most color blind types, the green and red outlines are either confused together, or not matching any code color reminding of a valid or invalid element (grey, yellows. etc.)

Learn more: Avoid communicating a message on the basis of colour

Links and colors

Using color to only differenciate a link from the text is inaccessible for colorblind users.

In the following example, the chapter 1 and last paragraph are links, without underline. It's difficult, if not impossible to see the difference between the text and the links available.

Learn more: Render links accessible

Chapter 1

The European languages are members of the same family. Their separate existence is a myth. For science, music, sport, etc, Europe uses the same vocabulary. The languages only differ in their grammar, their pronunciation and their most common words.

See European languages

Color contrast

Portfolio

Welcome to my portfolio!

I'm a content creator and translator from English to German and German to English.

Color contrast is sometimes set aside, in favor of a subtle color theme. If the background and text colors have a low contrast, they are illegible.

In this example, deuteranopian and protanopian users are the most affected with this choice of colors. They might not even see there is content on the page.

Learn more: Top color contrast checkers, Color and contrast with Material.io

Color pickers

Color pickers sometimes use the original color as caption. This type of selection is only accessible for non colorblind users. Users with protanopia, deuternopia, tritanopia and achromatopsia are unable to identify the original colors shown.

With protanopia and deuteranopia, reds, greens, yellows, purple are impossible to identify. Tritan users will confuse pinks, yellows, purple, also, greens and blues are altered and difficult to identify.

Learn more: Designing eCommerce for colorblind users

Model wearing a white shirt with a black design of a light bulb

Unisex t-shirt Lightbulb - 35 EUR

Choose a color:

Pie charts and infographics

Pie chart with the original question: How do you spend your leisure time? The answers in the chart are divided in 5 categories: TV, Books, Games, Other and Music. Each pie as a different color, that are only easy to distinguish without colorblindess. The colors are dark blue, lighter blue, orange and a lighter tone, the last one is grey.

Pie charts and graphics are also easily inaccessible, due to the colors, again, being the only source of information. Different tones of blue and yellow will be seen as very similar with protanopia, deuteranopia, tritanopia. Achromatopsia can even show colors in the same shade of grey, which makes the pie chart impossible to read.

Learn more: How to render diagrams and infographics accessible

Resources

eBooks

Definitions

Best practices and recommendations

Extensions and applications