Color-blindness: how to alienate a grant reviewer
ken.ma...@gmail.com
Nature 445, 593 (8 February 2007) | doi:10.1038/445593c; Published
online 7 February 2007
Colour-blindness: how to alienate a grant reviewer
Joseph A. Ross1
1. Peichel Laboratory, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, 1100
Fairview Avenue North, Mailstop D4-100, Seattle, Washington 98109, USA
Sir:
With regard to recent Correspondence (Nature 445, 147 & 364; 2007) on
the prevalence of scientific figures that are difficult for people
with red-green colour-blindness to read, I am compelled to support
Chris Miall's position.
As a red-green colour-blind (deuteranope) scientist and graphic
designer, I have long campaigned for figures to be accessible to an
entire audience. I do so, in part, by leading seminars training my
colleagues to create accessible figures.
One of the key resources I employ in this crusade is a website by
Masataka Okabe and Kei Ito: http://jfly.iam.u-tokyo.ac.jp/color/
index.html.
I strongly urge all authors to visit this site, which both describes
the need for creating accessible images (including simulations of
colour-blindness for those who are curious) and, more importantly,
provides instructions for making figures comprehensible to everyone.
This includes instructions on how to pseudo-colour images containing
red and green fluorescent signals - one of the most hated types of
graphic among people with colour-blindness. Authors will find it is
surprisingly easy to accommodate the colour-blind when creating
figures.
Anyone who needs to be convinced that making scientific images more
accessible is a worthwhile task should consider that colour-blindness
is common, affecting 5-10% of males. If your next grant or manuscript
submission contains colour figures, what if some of your reviewers are
colour-blind? Will they be able to appreciate your figures?
Considering the competition for funding and for publication, can you
afford the possibility of frustrating your audience? The solution is
at hand.