Colorblind and iPhone
Apple pays a lot of attention to people with disabilities. You will find all kinds of accessibility features on the iPhone, iPad and Mac. Of course, attention is also paid to people who are color blind. With the special color filters for color blind people, you can ensure that the colors on the screen are adjusted, so that you can better see the difference between red, green and blue.
- Colorblind variants
- Color filters
- Colorblind and iPhone
- Color blindness and Mac
Color-blind? Apple takes all variants into account
There are different types of color blindness, namely deuteranomaly (color weakness for green), protanopia (red) and tritanomaly (blue). The first two variants are the most common, namely in 5% and 1% of men. The third form is very rare. Apple takes all three into account.
This English video from Apple provides an explanation of the color filters:
Color filters for color blind people
The color filters for color blind people can be found here:
- Go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size.
- Choose the Color Filters option.
- At the top of the screen you will see a series of colored pencils. Swipe over it to see the other view with boxes and hexagons.
- Turn on the switch for Color Filters.
- Choose the desired display for your type of color blindness. You can adjust the intensity with the slider at the bottom of the screen.
Apps now display colors in a different way that better reflects the way you see. When you take screenshots, the colors will be displayed normally, not in the adjusted shades. You can also display the screen in grayscale.
Also useful: at the bottom of the list you will find the option to give the screen a certain color tint. This can come in handy if you think your screen has too blue or yellow a tint. This is similar to Night Shift, but it also allows you to give the screen a green or blue tint.
Apps for color blind users
There are also external apps for people who are color blind. For example, there are apps that can tell you what color a certain object is, so that you don’t accidentally put on red and green socks. In the past we have written on iCulture about Colorblind Vision, which gives non-colorblind people an impression of what it is like to be colorblind. We also wrote about Color Binoculars, a color ‘binoculars’ made by two Microsoft engineers. Unfortunately, these apps often have a short life. Once the developer is no longer interested, support for the app will stop.
The apps below are still available, but unfortunately are no longer updated as often:
- ColorSay: this app tells you what color it is.
- Red Stripe: also tells what color you see.
- Say Color: tells you the color, unfortunately is rarely updated.
- Chromatic Glass: helps you distinguish between certain colors thanks to augmented reality.
- Chromatic Vision Simulator: This app simulates colors.
Color blindness on Mac
On the Mac you won’t find the same color filters for people who are color blind, but there are settings to adjust the colors of the screen. You can find it via System Preferences > Accessibility > Display > Color Filters.
We have even more tips for setting up your iPhone and iPad screen:
- iPhone screen too blue or too yellow? This is how you adjust it
- Make your iPhone less addictive with grayscale
- This is how you use dark mode on your iPhone and iPad
- This way you can cleverly invert colors for a dark display
- Reading iPhone screen in the dark: white on black
- Extra dim screen on iPhone and iPad
