I'm renovating an old house to turn into a home for my family. It's from the 1970s. It has a great structure and a sound foundation. Sure it needs a lot of work, but we'll be proud to call it our home when we're done.
We thought we struck gold when we bought it.
And then this week, we dug a little deeper and we found out that the entire electrical wiring needs to be replaced. It's a pain to do and it'll cost a fortune.
Why am I telling you this?
Because as I was trying to reroute some wires, I came across a problem that about 350,000,000 people worldwide have to deal with every day. For a moment, I was colour blind.
Normally, the electrical wires are colour-coded. Blue, brown, black, yellow/green. Black is used for power in circuits. That's the naughty one that'll make you go bzzz. So I try to handle that one with care.
But in the socket I was working with, they were all black. All. Wires. Were. Black.
Without colours to tell them apart, I was stuck. Which one do I touch, which one do I handle with care? I felt a bit scared, frustrated, worried I'd make a mistake, annoyed that the people that did the wiring didn't pay attention and just plain tired after I got through it.
This is exactly how people with colour blindness feel when accessing a website where the important information is identified by colour alone.
- They have difficulty distinguishing elements
- They can misinterpret important information, like charts or graphs
- They'll miss errors and warnings when they're colour-coded
- They'll need more time and more effort to understand the content
They might even get a shock, if they want to learn which wire not to touch and the only way to distinguish them in a photo on the site will also be colour-coded. Clear distinctions are crucial for usability and for safety.
This experience gave me a brief insight into the daily challenges faced by people who are colour-blind.
Even for this brief moment, I understood how poor design choices can have serious implications, from electrical mishaps to misinterpreted web content. Understanding these challenges should motivate everyone to create more inclusive and accessible products.
I know I'll be done with the electrical re-wiring in my home at some point. I doubt we'll ever get everyone to relate to the frustration and fatigue that people with disabilities go through because of our cock-up.