Unseen Problem: Color Blind Gamers

As gamers, we often take for granted the fact that we can make out a particular team’s flag or the difference between two shaded blocks in our favorite puzzler. But what about those that can’t? Color vision deficiency – commonly known as color blindness – can make these distinctions almost impossible, and it’s a problem that affects more gamers than you may think.

Color blindness affects nearly seven percent of the US male population – that’s about 10.5 million people! With such a large portion of the population affected, game publishers are going to have to start implementing fixes or risk isolating part of their consumer base.

Luckily, developers are coming around to the potential problem faced by gamers with color vision deficiency. Tim McDaniel, a developer for Aspyr who is color blind himself, says that “One specific gaming example that always frustrates me is Battlefield 2142. I love the game, but the flags of the two teams are not distinct enough on the HUD, at least to me. I honestly can’t tell you what color they are.” With color blind gamers working on the actual design process, we can expect to see more consideration afforded them in the future.

Some easy workarounds do exist, and they’ve been used with varying success in a number of games. For puzzle games, the best fix is stamping colored blocks with distinct shapes like stars and triangles a la Tetris Attack. In action titles, a special contrast setting can be included in the options menu that adjusts the color ratio to better reflect that seen by color blind gamers. These are a few relatively simple solutions to a problem that affects an untold number of gamers.

It’s not all bad for our color blind brethren – did you know that many can easily pick out camouflage that has been designed for people with color-normal vision? So while they may have trouble determining who’s on their team and who’s not, color blind gamers could feasibly hold the upper hand in maps with heavy foliage. Kinda like playing against a Predator (just without shoulder lasers or Jesse “The Body” Ventura).

If you happen to be color blind (or know someone who is) go ahead and check out this site for a list of alternative games that take the condition into account.