Xpost from hs board: Color Blindness

[Vida Winter]

We recently discovered that dd is color blind. She has always wanted to go into medicine. Does anyone have experience with color blindness and science courses in college? Would her lab courses be slightly harder for her or a lot harder?

[Kareni]

I've no personal experience with color blindness, but I could imagine that Chemistry labs which involve the use of an indicator could prove more challenging for your daughter.

 

We have a friend in his early twenties who is color blind; he has challenges when we play games that rely on color recognition.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Gwen in VA]

I have a close friend who is an organic chem prof. Because one of my kids has a disability of sorts, I have gotten into several conversations with her about disabilities in lab.

 

She has mentioned that she has had more than one student who has been colorblind. Her colorblind students all had letters from the disability office at the college. Because of the disability issue, she had to work with the students. I"m not sure whether she or another student helped with the color-dependent labs, but in any case the colorblindness issue was dealt with so the student could do the labs. Basically, colorblindness did not hold her students back, and at least one has gone on to med school.

 

I hope this helps -- my friend is currently undergoing chemo, but if you want I can get more info from her, but not soon.

[Alice]

I don’t think it would be a big deal. There are some labs that depend on seeing color changes but it’s not important for the concept, just the observations. Usually in labs you work with a lab partner anyway so the other person could easily tell her “it’s blue†or whatever. She would then still do the analysis and thinking about the results on her own, which is really the more important part.

 

I don’t think it would be a major problem in medical school either.

[Candid]

I'd figure out the extent and I'd talk with some med school admissions folks informally about disabilities. Med schools can be persnickety and anything that concerns them in terms of ability to care for patients is pertinent. If this is going to mean a no go on med school, it is better to learn now than later.

[Vida Winter]

Thank you for the replies. We made a doctor appointment. I am going to call the disability office at the college tomorrow and have dd call the pre-med adviser. I'm sure there will be forms to fill out by all concerned. The only thing I'm wondering is how I managed to miss this for almost eighteen (!) years.

[kiana]

You probably wouldn't notice it unless you specifically did a test. To her, it's normal.

 

I definitely agree with getting paperwork on file for disabilities. It's better to have it on file and not need it than to need it and not have it.

[Arcadia]

She has mentioned that she has had more than one student who has been colorblind. Her colorblind students all had letters from the disability office at the college. Because of the disability issue, she had to work with the students.

 

My cousin is color blind as in he can only see shades of gray. Radiologist is okay for him. Being a pharmacist would be a problem for him.

 

When I was in engineering school, color blind students are not admitted into electical and electronic engineering but okay for mechanical and civil engineering. A few of my classmates and I were given help for the electronics laboratory by the lab technician as we cannot tell shades of red/orange well. That means we cannot tell color coded resistors apart very well.

 

You do get help, just need to get the relevant forms filled.