This would be as close to my nightmare job as I can imagine. I would be the least helpful salesperson ever!
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Carpet, Tile, Stone, Sales
Author Archives: Wayne McVicker
Bomb Defuser / Disposer
Whatever you do, don’t cut the green wire!
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Biomedical Equipment Technician
There are some other areas such as in cardiovascular equipment where dopplers show blood flow in color and there is some lab equipment that show color for test results… i.e., if it’s more pinkish, it’s a trace of this, or more blue, a higher level of that. There is wiring for plugs and component pinouts for equipment that is very color specific, though most modern testing equipment is digital.
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Biologist
Chemical testing, species identification, etc. Depends upon the final specialization, but the required science classes tend to be miserable for the colorblind.
My story: Water Colors
Stories:
Biology Class Scores
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Athlete
Depends upon the sport, but every second counts in most. The difference between a good player and a great player can be determined by the speed at which they identify team members by their uniform color or track a ball or puck against varied backgrounds.
Stories:
Football (Soccer): Uniforms
Football (Soccer): Fans
Football (Soccer): Joel Walmsley
Rugby
Golf: Jack Nicklaus & Tiger Woods
Golf: Jack Nicklaus
Cricket
Hockey
Rugby
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Astronomer
Identifying the type and nature of objects often relies upon their color profile.
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Art Teacher
Good for the 4% of students that are colorblind, but perhaps not so good for the rest.
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Architect
Material and finish selection. Reading multi-color CAD images. Trying to sound confident when telling the client about why you selected that color.
My story: Green Trees
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Animal Control Enforcement
Tough to follow up on reports that someone was bitten by a large brown dog. Difficult to evaluate health of animal, i.e. blood, eyes, rash, dirt.
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Air Traffic Controller
Needs to communicate with the pilots by observing the multicolor dots corresponding to each aircraft on the flight data processing system. Identifying false targets on color-dependent radar.
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Black and White
First, some words about the terminology herein…
Regarding the spelling of the word “color”… I apologize in advance to those whose local dialect insists upon it being written as “colour”. My birthplace-biased opinion is that it looks and sounds perfectly fine without the superfluous “u”. And… I am quite drawn to the greater symmetry in the word “color”.
Most people diagnosed as “colorblind” actually see a moderately colorful world. Technically, we are “color-deficient”. To varying degrees, we struggle to distinguish between certain colors. Most of us are not blind to all colors. However, when a passenger in my car tells me to turn right, just past the blue car, the fact that I can see blue under certain ideal conditions does not change the fact that I am completely blind as to where I have been instructed to turn. So, I’m mostly sticking with “colorblind”, because that is how it feels.
Astronaut
Generally, colorblind persons cannot become astronauts. However, an ambitious, colorblind American Roger Crouch was rejected as a pilot, then as an astronaut, but eventually he applied to be a payload specialist and did make two spaceflights.
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Challenging Careers
Colorblindness is generally described as a minor inconvenience. For many of us this is a vast understatement. I would appreciate your help cataloging a comprehensive list of careers impacted by colorblindness.
Depending upon the type and severity of one’s color vision deficiency, it is difficult to pursue the careers listed below. Even those that successfully enter these professions will likely struggle to be among the top in their field.
I welcome any feedback in the comments, but am particularly interested in the following:
- Occupations that should be added to the list below, and why.
- Additional reasons the following jobs are particularly challenging.
- Uplifting stories of how you overcame obstacles to thrive in these professions.
A Flight of Fancy
I recently moved to an area near the ocean. It is a bit more rural than other places I’ve lived. A chance to get away from the hustle in an attempt to tame a tired and cluttered brain.
The house is adjacent to a large undeveloped area populated by an abundance of trees. An unexpected variety of wildlife shares the neighborhood. In my short time here, a backyard camera has captured visits by foxes, coyotes, skunks, raccoons, opossums, deer, and pumas.
Continue readingEvolution
My first position in an architecture firm was as a part-time runner. Long before the advent of electronic document distribution, my job was to shuttle drawings to and from assorted consultants and job sites. I was only in my first year of college, so doing any real architectural work was out of the question.
Continue readingA Shrinking World
Once I chose to pursue architecture as a profession, I began looking for any related job to get me started. Architecture firms weren’t interested in hiring high school students, but I did find a job listing for a local company that specialized in building scale models for architects. In spite of my young age, I figured that my experience with graphics and architectural drafting would give me an advantage over most people that would pursue this part-time, low-paying assembly job.
Continue readingColor Separation
Drafting (technical drawing) was my favorite class in high school. I took it all four years. While technically an elective, it was by no means an easy class. I enjoyed the challenge of meeting the high expectations of a very demanding instructor. I was something of a natural, and became quite good at drawing.
When a local businessman contacted the drafting department, offering some freelance work, the instructor recommended me. Continue reading
Water Colors
Starting in middle school, I became a tropical fish hobbyist. Not one to go half-in on anything, I gradually accumulated more than twenty aquariums in my bedroom. I bred, raised, and competed best-in-show gouramis. I coaxed varieties of catfish to breed that hadn’t previously spawned in captivity, which enabled me to start a business selling them to local stores.
Continue readingGoogle Colors
Duffy, our labradoodle, was enjoying his morning off-leash play in a field with seven other dogs. Always delightful… watching them interact. Every character is unique. Like people, but less inhibited.
Each day there is a slightly different mix of people and dogs. Regulars come and go.
One morning, a man I see about once a week was there. In the past, I had overheard someone talking to him, asking him what it was like to work at Google…
I was chatting with a relatively talkative woman whose dog I had just met, when the Google guy started walking away with his pooch in tow. She rather abruptly pointed his way and said, “Oh… he works at Google.”
She’s So Cute!
This weekend, I purchased a retractible leash for our puppy, Duffy. There are places on walks where I want him to be able to roam more freely.
I was perplexed that the pet store had several different rows of the model I wanted, even though they all were labeled as medium. I read and reread the boxes, just to make sure that there were no subtle differences between them. Nope, they all said the same thing, so I picked one…
Continue reading
Colorless 