Color Blindness recommend for me to Understand

Question

Hi,

Do you have a recommend for me to learn about color blindness and why should we use it when we make maps before we publish it in the public.

I am trying to understand the difference between the colors apart and why we test it.

Can be anything such as YouTube, website, instructions sheets, etc. that might be helpful to me.

I do not have ArcGIS Pro 3.0 yet.  I do currently have the 2.9.5

progis99 · Answer

Thank you for that information to post....

JessicaMccall · Answer

Thank you for reaching out!

Color-blindness, also known as Color Vision Deficiency (CVD), is the inability to distinguish certain shades of color. (American Optometric Association) There are 6 defined types of color vision deficiency and the condition is usually genetic (National Eye Institute).

When you are using Esri software, there are a variety of ways that you can test your content to make sure you are choosing colors that will provide enough contrast for someone with CVD.

* Colorblindly is a Chrome extension that simulates colorblindness
* ColorBrewer allows you to select colors for color ramps to test their contrast specifically for cartography 
* WebAIM Contrast Checker can tell you whether colors provide enough contrast, which is also important to people with low vision.

I also found a few blogs that have been published over the years through ArcNews, etc. that might be interesting:

ArcNews - To See or Not to See

ArcGIS Living Atlas - Red... Green... What?

ArcWatch - Ramp Up Your Mapping

This article from SiteImprove also provides a great summary on website accessibility standards that are applicable to those with a visual impairment such as color vision deficiency.

I'm sure there is more information out there just a google search away, so I hope others will pass along additional useful information here too!