Hello, my name is mun yang, and i am colour-blind.
Okay, great, now that we’ve got that out of the way.
When I was young, my mum would sometimes bring it up. She’d assure me by saying, “You know, it’s okay to be colour-blind. You can still live your life normally, and you shouldn’t let this get you down.”
Her intentions were pure (bless her), and she only wanted to make sure that I didn’t feel that colour-blindness was a disability, which thankfully, I didn’t. I’d look at her and think, “I have no idea what you mean about living life normally, because I don’t think I’m living it abnormally or something.”
Over the years, it’s been great being colour-blind. Friends that’ve known me for a long time still constantly point to something and ask what colour it is. Since I’m red-green deficient, the usual answer is, “Oi, I’m colour-blind, not blind.”, which just eases the tension away from people even more. Meeting people for the first time, though, is a little bit more hard work. I think they go through the “Oh my goodness, what do I say to this guy now? It’s like he’s sharing his disability with me, and I have no idea how to react since I’ve just met him”, then to “Quick. Quick! Change the subject! At least avert your eyes!”, to “Whew that was close. Why the folk is this guy telling me all this stuff? We’re not that close.” It’s kinda funny watching people’s reactions when you first tell them that you’re colour-blind, because most people don’t like to talk about real things – it’s much easier to talk about others instead.
Anyhow, I just found out that one of my favourite games ever – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – is releasing a colour blind assist option for their new installment. While I have no clue what that means (everything in black and white?), and since colour-blind people all have different degrees of colour-blindness, I find it fascinating. Might even cut down my game time, since I won’t need to miss seeing the enemy so often and get shot in the face as much. Love it.
http://xbox360.gamespy.com/xbox-360/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-3/1181318p1.html
Side-note: I am reminded of one of my uncles is well and truly colour-blind, like he sees the world in shades of black and white. During one Chinese New Year, he was showing off his brand new leather shoes when another uncle commented, “how come one of your socks is black, and the other is purple?” Since then, I always double-check my sock colours. Always.
Tags: call of duty 3, colour-blind
