“So Thatʼs What You See!” Building Understanding with Personalized Simulations of Color Vision Deficiency

Color vision deficiencies (CVD) affect the everyday lives of a large number of people, but it is difficult for others – even friends and family members – to understand the experience of having CVD. Simulation tools can help provide this experience; however, current simulations are based on general models that have several limitations, and therefore cannot accurately reflect the perceptual capabilities of most individuals with reduced color vision. To address this problem, we have developed a new simulation approach that is based on a specific empirical model of a CVD person’s actual color-perception abilities. The resulting simulation is therefore a more exact representation of what a particular person with CVD actually sees. We tested the new approach in two ways. First, we compared its accuracy with that of the standard models, and found that the personalized simulations were significantly more accurate than the old method. Second, we asked pairs of participants (one with CVD, and one close friend or family member without CVD) to discuss images of everyday scenes that had been simulated with the CVD person’s particular model. We found that the personalized simulations provided people new insights into the details of the CVD person’s experience. The personalized-simulation approach shows great promise for improving understanding of CVD (and potentially other conditions) to people with ordinary perceptual abilities.