Snipers are no match for the colour blind.

One of the most underrated advantages of being colour blind is the ability to much more easily spot contrasts. Popularly throughout time colour blind individuals have been trained as snipers in the military due to the ineffectiveness of camouflage on their vision.

One story published in TIME magazine back in the 1940s described how one pilot who had accidentally snuck through the colour screening program had inadvertently made a mission a success by easily spotting camouflaged enemy in grass and trees. Of course the Air Force and Army is still in no rush to start accepting thousands of colour blind applicants because they still deem the ability to read buttons and lights and signals properly as very important (Rightfully so I guess).

This makes the colour blind sniper a hit or miss thing. Some have suggested they were prevented from taking on the role, others (mostly from days gone by) have said they were employed specifically.

Try your luck out below! Chances are your colour blind pals will be able to spot these snipers a lot quicker than you!

How many did you spot? Tell us in the comments below or over on Facebook!

Thanks to IJR Review for the article. If you want to find more snipers check out stacks more images here.

Getting a job when you can’t see colours properly

One of the biggest influences over a person’s career can in fact be the quality of their colour vision. The dreams of many have been crushed all because a little bit of genetic bad luck. You might suggest that it is because of outdated practices with uses of colour in society, and that there should be methods for colour blind individuals to participate. Unfortunately this argument is a little void however in that we can’t expect these careers to change their operations for what is essentially a minority group. So in this case cutting the colour is not the answer, but education, and early diagnosis is.

Here are just a few career paths affected by colour defective vision:

Policing

Along the same lines as the military here there are often stringent colour vision standards when it comes to taking on police work. There was great news out of Scotland recently that colour vision was no longer going to be a distinguishing factor in choosing new recruits however there remains a significant degree in difficulty in most other forces internationally.

Police work tends to require more accurate colour vision not only for street lights (which is a ridiculous claim because the orders of the lights don’t change so why would the colours necessarily matter?) but also for witness/threat descriptions.  If a suspect is wearing a particularly coloured shirt and it can’t be described that’s a problem. Should have no problem catching those swans though.

Military

The official party line of the ADF is that “Colour blindness will restrict the areas of employment that are available to you.” And that “A Defence Recruiter will be able to tell you which jobs you are suitable for.” What’s most frustrating about this is the fact that you don’t actually find out where these areas are until you go and apply (after which you can be swiftly disappointed).

Tony Guerra writes that in the US military most areas are actually open to colour vision impairment so long as the impairment does not affect red and green discrimination. Red and Green colour blindness is the most common form so it is quite likely that if affected by this form of colour blindness you’ll be working in an area of the military that is not related to ground combat or vehicle control.

Electrician

While initially this sounds like the road to an explosive situation many colour blind individuals have successfully maintained careers in electrical. The coloured cables are obviously the source of the greatest problems however there have been some trends lately towards patterning. Ultimately it comes down to, like so many careers whether your employer deems it a risk, and how bad your colour blindness is/what spectrum you sit on.

One thing is for sure despite all this, those who are colour blind will often find ways of making their chosen professions work safely for both themselves and others. Unfortunately it remains to be seen what can be done about piloting and driving for military, police or other organisations.