Dear Ms Evans,
My daughter , Debbie Williams (Organizedtimes.com) informed me of your request for stories for your book on colorblindness.
I'll try to relate some of the experience that affected my life and how I dealt with them. I will say that it is hard to explain to people that have good color vision, that we see color, but have to deal in shades of light and dark. Blue, yellow, and orange I can see. These pastel colors are not in our visual vocabulary.
To begin with, I grew up in the 30's and 40's in a small rural town and went to a small rural school . I did not know I was colorblind until I was given a color test during my induction into the Army when I was 27 yr old. It was quite a shock to find out I was colorblind since I had been employed by Western Electric Co as an installation technician and had to deal with a lot of color coded wiring. Failing this test kept me from getting into the Signal Corps, which would have benefited me with training.
It started to make sense of some of the problems I had with discerning colors. In the lower grades, I had trouble with coloring pictures. I could see blue and orange, but red, green, and brown appeared the same, unless the red was a bright hue. My pictures would have red or brown grass and the foliage of trees wasn't any better. I was reminded that in the upper grades, when visual aides that were colored such as maps and charts, I had to get help to identify the areas of red, green, and brown. As far as academics, I don't think it was much of a hindrance. In retrospect I could never have been a Pilot nor a Dr. I would mention I had trouble with stop lights and associated the lights by their position.The newer lights evidently use a little blue in the green and orange in the red. I always treat amber as red since from a distance I cannot identify it.
I had problems with meeting quotas with wire connecting as a wireman. I had to keep the cables from separating to be able to take the wires in sequence. I was frustrated that my co workers could take breaks and goof off while I had to continue working to meet the connection quotas. I didn't know they could reach into a swarm of wires and identify them by color. At this time, I still didn't know I was colorblind, but I knew wiring wasn't my forte. This motivated me to get into more technical aspects of the installation process.
I went back to work for WECO upon returning from the service since they bridged my time. I was afraid if they found out I was color blind, they would release me. I was motivated to go to radio school on my own so as to get a better job. To make a long story short, the technical training gave me the confidence and knowledge to become a pretty good technician. Since I could figure most of the technical changes without having to be sent for training, I excelled in my field. My skills became in demand and I was approached by the Telephone Co (SWB) and offered a job as a Technical Supv. I retired after 35 years with SWB and enjoyed my work with a lot of job satisfaction.
As a postscript, I became an oil painter after retiring. I had always been intimidated by mixing color, but loved to draw and use charcoal. Since I can't mix color by eye, I found that by sketching and noting another artist's formula from a book, I can do a pretty good job and get acceptable results. My wife of over 50yr is my proof reader on color and I have yet to explain to her that I don't see the color that she sees.
Hopefully this can help some one understand that being colorblind is the "norm" for us and the knowledge we are, just makes us learn to adjust and use alternate means to meet our goals.
Sincerely, Paul Kiar
My daughter , Debbie Williams (Organizedtimes.com) informed me of your request for stories for your book on colorblindness.
I'll try to relate some of the experience that affected my life and how I dealt with them. I will say that it is hard to explain to people that have good color vision, that we see color, but have to deal in shades of light and dark. Blue, yellow, and orange I can see. These pastel colors are not in our visual vocabulary.
To begin with, I grew up in the 30's and 40's in a small rural town and went to a small rural school . I did not know I was colorblind until I was given a color test during my induction into the Army when I was 27 yr old. It was quite a shock to find out I was colorblind since I had been employed by Western Electric Co as an installation technician and had to deal with a lot of color coded wiring. Failing this test kept me from getting into the Signal Corps, which would have benefited me with training.
It started to make sense of some of the problems I had with discerning colors. In the lower grades, I had trouble with coloring pictures. I could see blue and orange, but red, green, and brown appeared the same, unless the red was a bright hue. My pictures would have red or brown grass and the foliage of trees wasn't any better. I was reminded that in the upper grades, when visual aides that were colored such as maps and charts, I had to get help to identify the areas of red, green, and brown. As far as academics, I don't think it was much of a hindrance. In retrospect I could never have been a Pilot nor a Dr. I would mention I had trouble with stop lights and associated the lights by their position.The newer lights evidently use a little blue in the green and orange in the red. I always treat amber as red since from a distance I cannot identify it.
I had problems with meeting quotas with wire connecting as a wireman. I had to keep the cables from separating to be able to take the wires in sequence. I was frustrated that my co workers could take breaks and goof off while I had to continue working to meet the connection quotas. I didn't know they could reach into a swarm of wires and identify them by color. At this time, I still didn't know I was colorblind, but I knew wiring wasn't my forte. This motivated me to get into more technical aspects of the installation process.
I went back to work for WECO upon returning from the service since they bridged my time. I was afraid if they found out I was color blind, they would release me. I was motivated to go to radio school on my own so as to get a better job. To make a long story short, the technical training gave me the confidence and knowledge to become a pretty good technician. Since I could figure most of the technical changes without having to be sent for training, I excelled in my field. My skills became in demand and I was approached by the Telephone Co (SWB) and offered a job as a Technical Supv. I retired after 35 years with SWB and enjoyed my work with a lot of job satisfaction.
As a postscript, I became an oil painter after retiring. I had always been intimidated by mixing color, but loved to draw and use charcoal. Since I can't mix color by eye, I found that by sketching and noting another artist's formula from a book, I can do a pretty good job and get acceptable results. My wife of over 50yr is my proof reader on color and I have yet to explain to her that I don't see the color that she sees.
Hopefully this can help some one understand that being colorblind is the "norm" for us and the knowledge we are, just makes us learn to adjust and use alternate means to meet our goals.
Sincerely, Paul Kiar
posted by CVD Books at 1:02 PM
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