Enviromental Engineer Student....Color Blind 1

[Enviroman95]

I am currently an Environmental Engineer student and I am color blind. How will this affect my employment opportunities when I graduate? I can see colors good but get confused with light greens and light reds. Please help me

 

[msquared48]

I am a civil and structural engineer with exactly the same problem. Always had it. Just don't go Electrical and you will be OK.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[Enviroman95]

I just fear I won't be able to read pH test strips
Is there a newer method Enviro's use besides the inaccurate test strips? Me and 4 other people once argued whether the sample we were testing was an acid or base...everyone had their own opinion.
It's the 21st century and we're still using test strips?! Why not use a machine that is more accurate than human color "opinion"? That's really all it is...There's NO WAY you can tell if we are seeing the same thing...We shouldn't be wasting all that paper anyways...I hate when it gets soggy and falls apart

 

[Ron]

Enviroman95...battery operated field pH meters are more accurate and they don't care if you're color blind. Just take a bottle of distilled water along and you'll be fine.

 

[SlideRuleEra]

Enviroman95 - If you will be working in the USA, become familiar with the "American With Disabilities Act" (ADA). You may be surprised what questions a potential employer can and cannot ask before a job offer. Also, there are limits on what information about yourself that you are obligated to disclose during an interview. Based on your stated concerns, Ron's suggestion for using a pH meter would certainly be a "reasonable accommodation" for color blindness by an employer. IMHO, you are not going to have a problem - don't make it into one.

Here is a summary of the ADA:

http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/ada18.html

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net

http://www.VacuumTubeEra.net

 

[msquared48]

I have a hot tub and swim spa, and usually had no problem comparing the colors with the standard acid-base color chart.

When in doubt, I just asked my wife who claimed not to be color blind, then blamed the reading on her.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[ACtrafficengr]

It sounds more like you are color-weak, not color blind.

My son is color weak, too, and can tell red from green, but has problems with shades like pinkish beige and greenish beige, yellow and yellow-green, or dark blue and dark purple.

Most normal vision people assume color blindness is all or nothing. Actually, most people with color vision problems have some degree of color weakness, not full color blindness. This has led to some people getting denied jobs they could do, or even getting fired from jobs they've been successfully doing for years.

 

[msquared48]

Yep. I was refused admission into NROTC when I flunked their color blindness test - couldn't see any of the numbers except the example and part of the first one. Needed it for flight school. I have always had to ask the wife what colors (red or green)were in the distance from buoy lights for determining the correct route (boating). It's not always the color you see, but the light you see it in, and the amount of light from the color source that makes determination so difficult.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[Blue85]

When you are working in a problem like C3D, with GIS softwhere or other softwhere then the colours have an number, so I don't think it would be problem.

 

[msquared48]

Actually, the biggest problem I run into is distinguishing between red and green pencils for corrections visually. The good thing is that I can read. Imagine that! An engineer who can read!

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering