By using a color arrangement test you can find out not only if you are colorblind at all but also the type and severity of your color vision deficiency. A color arrangement test consists of a given number of colored chips. These small discs are shuffled and then have to be arranged by the person under observation according to their similarities, starting from a fixed reference color.

While people not affected by any color vision deficiency will arrange it from blue through green, yellow, orange and red according to the hue circle, persons who suffer from some kind of color blindness have severe problems arranging the chips in the right order. They will have some crossovers in the hue circle, whereas the direction of the crossover indicates the type of color blindness.

There are three different well known color arrangement test:

• Farnsworth-Munsell 100-Hue Test, consisting of 85 colored chips which have to be arranged in the correct order. This test is very time consuming and reveals the type of color blindness but can not distinguish between dichromacy and anomalous trichromacy.
• Farnsworth Dichotomous Test (D-15), which is built out of 15 distinct color chips. The Farnsworth Dichotomous Test is useful for detecting dichromacys, in particular, tritan defects. A disadvantage is, that minor color vision defects can not be detected.
• Lanthony’s Desaturated 15-Hue Test has also 15 chips but in contrary to the Farnsworth Dichotomous Test the colors are less saturated. This makes the Lanthony Desaturated Test much more difficult and you therefore can detect more subtle color vision deficiencies.

Dean Farnsworth was a Commander stationed at the Naval Laboratory and developed the Farnsworth-Munsell 100-Hue Test and the Farnsworth Dichotomous Test (D-15) for the Navy. He developed the tests with the support of others between 1943 and 1947. They were used starting in 1955 for specific job placements.

You can find an online version of this test available here at Colblindor at Color Arrangement Test. All you have to do is to arrange the 15 color discs by similarity, starting with the reference disc. If finished the results are shown in two different representations:

1. A graphical representation whereas each color chip is shown as a dot in the CIE-color diagram. The dots are connected with lines according to the order of your arrangement. Protan, deutan and tritan axis can be highlighted inside the diagram for an easy verification of the type of your color blindness.
2. Scores according to Vingrys and King-Smith which are determined from the angles between the connecting lines, producing a color difference vector. The scores consist of three important values:
   Angle, indicating the type of color deficiency,
   Confusion-Index, measuring the severity,
   Scatter-Index, assessing the degree of scatter.

After taking the test you can match your scores to the according values in a table, where all the different types of color blindness are listed. Through this matching and the comparison with the axis in the graphical representation you can verify your type and severity of color blindness.

On the left hand side you can see my test results as a graphical representation. I mainly mixed up hues from the beginning and the end of the color circle. As the test can primarily detect dichromacy I conclude, that I am not dichromatic but do have a very strong anomalous trichromacy. Looking at the axes of the connections they are a bit messy but are coming closest to the protanopia axis.

Try it out yourself. Maybe you even would like to compare your result not only to mine but also with some results from other tests for color blindness. You can find more articles about tests in the Tests Category.

Check the online version of the D-15 Color Arrangement Test here at Colblindor.

Mike McLane’s son is colorblind but they didn’t really found out about it until his son was in the 4th grade. By knowing about his deficiency only afterwards teachers could support him and so Mike’s son didn’t receive bad test results anymore just because of his red-green color blindness.

That is why Mike created a Color Blindness Testing Poster. It can be used as an initial screening. Only if a child can not see the numbers and signs on it a doctor should be consulted for proper testing. The poster works very well with children of age 5 or 6 years, as Mike writes on his web site.

Hover over the image to unveil the signs

As for my person I just feel like a blind man when I look at all the dots. Only at the bottom to the left and right side I can see some lines and that’s about it. Nothing else! Well, if I look very close I can see some numbers. Somewhere I spotted the number 99 until my wife corrected me — it is the number 79.

There are approximately 8% of men affected by color blindness. As a conclusion there is about in every school class a child which has some kind of color vision deficiency and usually this isn’t recognized immediately. But if the teacher and the child would know about it there learning experience could be improved a lot.

Color blindness is frustrating not only for the affected child but also for teachers. It can lead to unexplainable test results, completely wrong answers and misunderstandings. If color blindness is understood a teacher can support affected children by choosing correct colors, supporting colors with signs and be a helping hand if colors are the source of understanding for example in biology classes.

Arlene Evans found out about this lack of information when she was working as a school teacher. That’s why she wrote a book on color vision deficiency for children to explain this phenomenon in simple words and pictures. She also gives some hints and tipps for everyday life. The book is not only a good source of information for children but also for teachers and helps to better understand color blindness and how you can support children affected by this deficiency.

Dear teachers, please learn more about color blindness, try to understand it, be aware of it whenever colors are involved or even buy one of this posters. You are confronted with color blindness every day — even if you don’t know about it yet.

Related articles:
Arlene Evans Books about Color Blindness
Colorblind Population
Color Blindness Test by Dr Shinobu Ishihara

Direct link to the Color Blindness Testing Poster web site.

Being colorblind and testing your personality through a ColorQuiz, I thought this could maybe give me some special insights into my soul.

Taking the test is as easy as winking: They show you eight squares in eight different colors, where I have to say for my eyes the colors were not at all colors I associate with my psyche. But anyway, you have to choose the order of the colors, starting with the one you like most and click them away one after the other. If you are done you have to do the same again with the same colors. They are only shown in a slightly different order. The big clue is: You have to wait for three minutes before you accomplish the second round of color clicking. I nominate those three minutes to todays most boring minutes.

When you are done they show you a very detailed view of your personality. My one looked like the following:

• Your Existing Situation
  Sensitive and understanding but under some strain; needs to unwind in the company of someone close to him.
• Your Stress Sources
  Wishes to be independent, unhampered, and free from any limitation or restriction, other than those which he imposes of himself or by his own choice and decision.
• Your Restrained Characteristics
  Unhappy at the resistance he feels whenever he tries to assert himself. Indignant and resentful because of these setbacks, but gives way apathetically and makes whatever adjustments are necessary so that he can have peace and quiet. Egocentric and therefore quick to take offense. Sensitive and sentimental, but conceals this from all except those very close to him.
• Your Desired Objective
  Feels that there is little prospect of achieving his hopes and therefore surrenders himself to a life of sensuous ease, free from any problems.
• Your Actual Problem
  Seeks security and a position in which he will no longer be troubled by demands being made on him.

This raises the question: Is it allowed to take this test even if you are suffering form color blindness? Or does this tamper the result? If I look at the results I think they don’t fit at all. So the big question is: Can this be tracked back to my color blindness or is this test just to simple and superficial?

Personally I think the test is based on an oversimplifed pattern. Different colors affectations don’t deduce different types of personality. I think every person grows up in a environment stamped by colors and this pertinents the liking and therefore the order of colors you choose in the ColorQuiz test. Color blindness pushes this problem even further because the colors appear to a colorblind person differently than to a person with no color vision deficiency. Some colors may be almost glowing for your eye but look completely pale to my ones. My conclusion is: It was fun to try it but the outcome is worth nothing.

Maybe you colorblind and not so colorblind fellows out there could help me out. It takes only a few minutes to make up your mind. But take caution, the chosen colors are truly awful.

Unfortunately the Ishihara plates are not available at this adress anymore. But I posted them in a new article on Colblindor and you can find them all at: Ishihara’s Test for Colour Deficiency: 38 Plates Edition. Make sure to also visit my Online Color Blindness Tests, to check your color vision abilities.

The Ishihara Color Blindness test – named after a Japanese Professor at the University of Tokyo – is the most well known tool to test for red-green color blindness. Mr Ishihara developed this test almost 100 years ago. It was first published in 1917 and is used since then to check if someone is suffering from protanopia or deuteranopia, the two different kinds of red-green color vision deficiencies.

A collection of 38 plates filled with colored dots build the base of this test. The dots are colored in different shades of a color and a number or a line is hidden inside with different shades of an other color. But enough theory, take the color blindness test by Mr Ishihara yourself and be surprised (or not) of the result.

The above link showes the so called small test. The small test consists of 24 different plates (or cards) and the large test of 38. The plates follow a setup of four different test designs:

1. Transformation plates – anomalous colour observers give different responses to colour normal observers. [Plates 2-7]
2. Disappearing digit (Vanishing) plates – only the normal observer is meant to recognize the coloured pattern. [Plates 9-13]
3. Hidden digit plates – only the anomalous observer should see the pattern. [Plates 14-15]
4. Qualitative plates – intended to classify protan from deutan and mild from severe anomalous colour perception. [Plates 16-23]

It has to be mentioned, that tests like this one are never 100% accuarte. This is due to the two following facts: First of all, every computer monitor has its own color correction. So it never can be guaranteed that the seen colors are really the colors which should be seen. This can falsify the results. And second, easily put there can always be some false positives. This test can therefore not be considered as a medical test for color blindness.

Now let’s have a look at the outcomes. I will show you my results and you can, if you like, compare them with your own ones:

• CARD 1: 12. Of course, everybody should see that.
• CARD 2: 3 with a slight shade of an 8.
• CARD 3: A very confuse 29.
• CARD 4: Some dot clusters, that’s all.
• CARD 5: A slight circle at the top.
• CARD 6: Some dots here, some there.
• CARD 7: Dots everywhere.
• CARD 8: Nothing. I mean, I can see the big circle full of little colored circles, but that’s all.
• CARD 9: Nothing.
• CARD 10: Nothing.
• CARD 11: Nothing.
• CARD 12: Nothing.
• CARD 13: Nothing.
• CARD 14: Some lines and clusters but no number.
• CARD 15: More lines and dot clusters.
• CARD 16: I would say a 6 on the righthand side.
• CARD 17: 2, righthand side.
• CARD 18: A blue (?) line more at the bottom of the circle.
• CARD 19: Two crosses. One on the left and the other on the right side of the circle.
• CARD 20: Many colorful dots.
• CARD 21: More colors and more dots.
• CARD 22: Some kind of inner circle with three gaps.
• CARD 23: There is a line, but it has huge gaps in between.
• CARD 24: I can see that one…

If I try to make a conclusion out of my views I would say I am suffering something between strong protanomalia, protanopia and complete color blindness. Yes, I knew it before and I know it even better now: I am colorblind. But at least I could spot the first and the last plate easily.

Further readings:
Ishihara Color Blindness Test at Wikipedia
The Ishihara Color Vision Test
Ishihara Test for Color Blindness

Direct link to The Color Blindness Test by Mr Ishihara.