The spectrum for those with colorblindness

[Cliff N. Hansen]

As part of my ongoing studies into accessibility in book publishing, I decided to share with everyone a simple color-spectrum (feel free to enlarge the image by clicking on it) that shows you what a rainbow looks like for people with various forms of color blindness. I made this with Photoshop and the Vischeck filter. While I don't think anyone expects a designer to work with only a color-blind audience in mind, it's important to take it into account. For instance, think about what yellow on a green background would look like for someone with the first two forms of colorblindness...identical. As there is a large percentage of our population with colorblindness, I think this is something you would want to take into account as a designer.