Recently, Reddit user u/GasparThePrince invited color-blind people across the internet to share: "What is one of the most unexpected problems related to color you face often?"
The now viral thread has over 5,500 responses with everyday challenges that the average person may not have considered. Here are some of the top-voted responses:
1. "Cooking meat! I basically only cook white meat (turkey and chicken) at home because I have no idea how to tell if lamb or beef is cooked enough."
2. "I had a color-blind science teacher. ... The town had an upside-down traffic light for decades. The teacher knew it was upside down, and would just remember top was go, bottom was stop. Then the town suddenly flipped it it right side up. Luckily there wasn't an accident, he just had to explain to the officer what happened."
3. "Shopping for clothes. ... I’m not severely color-blind but have issues with things like purple, shades of blue, dark greens, browns, teal, grey, things like that. So I hate when clothing store tags or website color options either have number codes or non-descriptive names for colors. Olive Green on a sweater is great. Pine Tree and I’ll figure it out. Misty Hike and I am lost. Same with 091."
4. "Mowing the lawn, sometimes I'll miss a small patch and won't see it."
5. "Not color-blind but my fiancé is. He struggles with the ties on loafs of bread. The color of the tie will blend in with our counter top and I’ll hear him tapping his hand up and down trying to find it so he can close the packaging on the loaf."
6. "Trying to buy bananas. ... I can never tell which ones are or aren’t ripe."
7. "When electrical devices change from red to green when fully charged. I have no idea. Simply making the charging light flash and fully charged light not flash would make life so much easier."
8. "I play Among Us, and sometimes I would vote myself or the wrong person out because I couldn't differentiate colors."
9. "Getting emails from colleagues telling me their comments can be found below in red."
10. "Picking out makeup and applying it so that it looks good is next to impossible."
11. "Being unable to see if the lock in a public toilet is red or green. It’s a godsend when toilets are labeled 'Vacant' or 'Engaged.'"
12. "'Don’t you love the beautiful fall colors?'... It’s all brown."
13. "You'd be surprised how often color is the only identifier for things. 'Can you hand me the red one?' Or, 'Turn left at the brown house.' I'd say little things like that make up the majority of times my color-blindness is a problem."
14. "When people don’t believe me and try to test me by asking me what color something is. It was funny the first time it happened in second grade. It’s not really funny 30 years later."
15. "Watching the NBA after they stopped forcing teams to wear white at home. It's a confusing mess most of the time."
16. "Sometimes I can’t see dog shit in grass."
17. "On my stepdad's behalf, I’ll say that he doesn’t know that the kitchen utensils are all pink."
18. "My teacher can’t see blue — such a simple thing, but one time all the worksheets came out grey. He was like, ‘Here’s some lovely blue sheets for you.’ And a girl went, 'What are you, color-blind?’ And he went, ‘Yes.’ The pause was deafening."
You can read the full thread of responses on Reddit.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.