Describing color

My younger brother is color blind, severly. And so is one of my nephews, at least it seems so. My brother can see some colors, but for the most part his world is black, shades of grey, white and just a smidge of a hint of color thrown in. How do you describe to him what green or blue is? He uses comparisons based on what he knows certain things SHOULD be. He knows leaves are green and the sky is blue. He owns a silver car, though he thinks it is grey. My truck is dark blue, he thinks it's black. For the longest time, he thought his wife's hair was blonde, she's a red head. My brother has an amazing sense of smell, however. As a blind person would. I would describe colors by scent. I have been known to do it with my brother. The smell of fresh cut grass would be green, the smell of citrus would be orange, the smell of a crisp sunny day (no humidity) would be blue. Having grown up with a person who doesn't see the world as I (and most people) do, I've learned to alter my perception to allow for alternate thinking so when my brother asks "what color is this?" and it's a purple sweater I can tell him "it's grape jelly", and he'll know what exactly what I mean.

It would be impossible for him/her to understand what "seeing" is. color would be WAY harder. For him/her it would be like learning a 4th dimension. If i was going to tell a blind person what sight is I would tell him this: certain objects like a lightbulb or the sun give off energy called light. when this light hits an object some of the light is absorbed and some of it is reflected. when the reflected light goes into your eye your brain tells you many things about the object such as how far away it is, how big it is, and what color it is. I don't know how i would explain color though

If it is possible, try explaining with the person tasting orange flavored jello, and then hand this person an orange! It doesn't explain it all and i know it is just basic, but it would be a good start and perhaps other ideas will come to you! Take care Gemini0611.

I have a friend that is blind and she says that textures and smells tell her what color looks like to her I would suggest that you peel a fresh orange and a cantaloupe and let the blind person smell the cantaloupe first for light Orange and smell the fresh orange peel for a deep orange. try it your self it is surprising the reaction you will get, she said she now knows what clouds look like as some one gave her several lose cotton balls. Green is the smell if fresh cut grass, purple is a lilac flower white is a fresh washed cotton sheet. It was so cool. to listen to her talk. I remember one time she was going to Florida to speak at a conference and she said she wasn't sure if she should fly or take the train as you could see so much more if you took the train. Nice lady

You are a very caring person to have been so affected by this interview question. I am not sure what the job was but sometimes these sort of quesions won't have a right or wrong answer they just want to see if you can think on your feet and how you react under pressure like this. However I agree with some of the comments here and would try to equate colour with temperature as we do code colours according to wether they are warm or cool. Also we equate colours with feelings so that is a good idea as well.

the interview, there is no right or wrong. they interviewer just wanted to see how you tackle a challenge. do you break down the problem into categories and manageble chunks. an answer described above for example would be like : 1. it doesn't matter what colour you are trying to describe. the challenge is the same. 2. if he is blind from birth then you cannot because he exist in BLACK colour. Trying to explain the concept of colour to the blind person is like trying to explain the concept of shoes to a fish. 3. if he lost his sight recently then you dn't need to do any explaining. as for your concern to your inability to expalin colours to a blind person, i hope point 2 explains it.

I'm not sure how I would describe a color to a blind person. I think you had some good ideas on describing orange as being warm. I suppose blue could be desribed as cool, gray as being dreary, etc. I think I so often use color to describe things to other people, it stops me short at the thought of trying to describe color. Tough question in an interview. I think you handled it well?

I rated you because you have really learned out of your this kind of interview! THis is a fact that some time some thing we really don't no in its real pespectives! So we under estimate such thing and when realise that it would be mostly late and late! So what are you passing through is really a good process running within and it will provide you more learning than the interview itself!

You are correct in describing to him the color orange. However, you could have also asked the interviewer if the person is blind at birth or just acquired it a few years after. It will really make a lot of difference. If he is born blind, it would make the description more difficult--this does not pertain only to colors, but to scenes and images. With things, it's a lot easier because you can always use the sense of touch to describe it. If the person acquired his/her blindness, then your description about citrus fruits and the sunset is very appropriate. Congratulations for the very artistic description of the color orange.

I agree with your answer. Also, to be more specific, you could have asked whether the blind person you're describing the color orange to is born blind, or was blind only after several years. This is important because those who are born blind will naturally not have a clue about citrus fruits, or the sunset...it would be totally different of course if the blind person has already experienced color, like you can describe red, mixed with yellow, you get an orange, and so on....it would make sense to him/her. With a person born blind, well it would be more difficult, and it would need so much art to successfully describe the color.

I believe born-blind only can understand black color but no other color because he/she never seen color. So what you will tell her/him how will understand it?

yeah.. you could just associate it with how a person would feel while looking at a certain colour. That might do the trick. Because they can only use their sense of feeling, thats how they imagine things to be... and descriptions given to them should be mainly based or equates around feelings. :) That way they would understand what you are trying to tell them or describe to them more.