July 27, 2026
Shades of chaos
Colorblind: Checking figure accessibility for colour blind people
Scientists try to fix hard-to-read images, but the comments stole the spotlight
TLDR: A researcher showed a simple way to test whether scientific images are readable for people with colour blindness and updated a figure to make it clearer. Commenters were supportive but blunt, with some saying parts were still hard to read, others pushing grayscale as the gold standard, and one launching a mini spelling scandal over color vs colour.
A scientist shared a handy ImageJ script for checking whether research figures are easier to read for people with colour blindness, then showed the before-and-after makeover on a real paper figure. The basic idea is refreshingly simple: don’t just assume bright red and green overlays work for everyone. Test them, spot the trouble, and add clearer single-channel grayscale views so more people can actually tell what they’re looking at.
But the real action was in the comments, where the community instantly turned into a chaotic accessibility focus group. One reader who is red/green colour blind basically gave the update a polite-but-brutal reality check, saying the merge was still hard to differentiate. Another jumped in with the strongest practical take of the thread: if an image works in grayscale, it should work for almost everyone with colour blindness. That’s the kind of comment that lands like a mic drop.
Then came the delightfully petty side quest: why does the headline use both “color” and “colour”? Yes, even an accessibility post wasn’t safe from a spelling drama derailment. Meanwhile, others kept it useful, swapping tips like Sim Daltonism for Mac and wondering whether people could just remap colours on their own screens. The mood was equal parts helpful, skeptical, and gloriously internet: fix the figure, sure, but first we’re arguing about spelling and whether grayscale is the one true king
Key Points
- •The article presents an ImageJ script that can be used to assess whether images and figures are accessible to people with colour blindness.
- •A published figure from a recent paper was tested with the script to simulate how it appears under different colour blindness conditions.
- •The initial assessment found accessibility problems in panels A and C for Protanopia and Deuteranopia, with panel D also problematic but harder to edit.
- •The revision strategy was to include separated grayscale channels rather than rely only on colour overlays, while avoiding major figure layout changes.
- •After revision and rechecking, the article reports improved clarity in panel D and better accessibility in panel A through inclusion of a separate channel.