Comments on: Looking for Children Games Playable with Severe Color Blindness

By: Lucy Koch

Lucy Koch — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 02:17:46 +0000

Try adding pattern to the game pieces. I’m thinking of games like CandyLand. Instead of just having colored squares, get out a black sharpie and have one solid (the darkest color) and then do patterns – dots, stripes, squiggles – on the other color squares so that there is a distinguishing characteristic from color to color. There is a silver sharpie pen that will write on dark colors and an opaque white pen (those are hard to find). You should be able, with a permanent marker, to add patterns right to playing pieces, cards and game boards.

By: Mary Bret

Mary Bret — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:03:53 +0000

I too have a colour blind son who has always enjoyed board games. We play them almost every evening and with a few modifications most games pose no problems at all. For example, Uno, it’s possible to write the initial of the colour in the corner of the card (Y on the yellow card). Rules can be changed as well – Mousey mousey has (horror of horrors!) a dice using colours instead of numbers, so just change the dice for a normal one and say that green is 4.
The best thing is to be inventive and have a good time.

By: Peter

Peter — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 20:08:02 +0000

I believe most card decks should be usable by an achromat thanks to the symbols on the four suits. Card games can be complicated, but some are probably okay for 8yo. Mahjong tiles are also distinguishable for achromat, but that is a game for older people.

Mancala is a family of ancient games that I believe a younger child would enjoy. I remember playing some in grade school.

Checkers could be played with modified pieces if the traditional red and black are not feasible. Chess should be playable although more for older people.

In general, many board games can probably be played after minor modifications to the board or pieces.

Word based games may work. Boggle is good for younger children. A lot of party games are probably okay (e.g. scattergories, pictionary), although perhaps more for older people. As far as I know these are American games; I don’t know if they have them in other languages.

This case sounds interesting. Again, I would encourage the family to contact a research university or hospital where a color vision scientist could assess the boy’s vision more precisely. Depends on where they are located I suppose. If they are willing to give a blood sample, the genotype could be assessed as well, even by sending the sample in from far away.

I can help them get in touch with some color scientists if they are interested. I am interested from a scientific perspective, but I also agree with you that it is in the best interest of the family to get a precise idea of what the color deficit is.

In any case, I would definitely be interested in hearing more about their experience, if the family is willing to discuss it further.