Chasing rainbows

Living with colorblindness feels like you're constantly being pranked by the world in subtle, irritating ways. The other day, I was booking a flight on Kayak, trying to figure out which dates are the cheapest by looking at their low fare calendar. See any issues? Oh, sorry - that's what it looks like to me. […]

Jun 13, 2025 - 00:00

Living with colorblindness feels like you're constantly being pranked by the world in subtle, irritating ways.

The other day, I was booking a flight on Kayak, trying to figure out which dates are the cheapest by looking at their low fare calendar. See any issues? Kayak calendar fares, with low/middle/high fares highlighted in different colors. The screenshot has been processed to simulate deuteranopia, also known as red-green colorblindness.

Oh, sorry - that's what it looks like to me. You probably see it more like this. Kayak calendar view for May and June of 2023, with lower fares highlighted in green, middle and higher fares highlighted in orange and red.

I opened up Chrome Dev Tools, changed the cheap fare colors to something I could actually see, and eventually booked my flight. A few weeks later, I'm off to the airport. Conveniently, the parking structure added colored lights to help find empty parking spots. Or so they say? They all look the same to me.

Airport parking garage. Red and green lights indicate occupied or vacant spaces ahead.

Airport parking garage. Red and green lights indicate occupied or vacant spaces ahead. Image has been processed to simulate red-green colorblindness, so it is difficult to differentiate between the lights.

Airport parking garage at PDX. Move slider to the left to see what Andy Baio sees.

It took me a little longer, but I found a parking spot. Waiting at the gate, maybe I'll kill some time on my phone. But why is this photo of an ordinary chili pepper at the top of Reddit? Or this leaf? Oh, right.

Bichromatic chili pepper in mottled red and green.

A chili pepper that appears nearly uniformly green.

Move slider to the left to see what Andy Baio sees.

A leaf. The image has been processed to simulate red-green colorblindness, and appears uniformly green-brown.

For some people, colorblindness is a serious liability that closes doors on career dreams. It's hard to become a pilot, train conductor, or pat …

Read the full story at The Verge.