Can you see purple? And is it the same as my purple?

colour blindness explanation. “Normal” perception on the left, Colour Blindness on the right (Credit: Enchroma)

All sensations (including what you see, hear and feel) are after all just your brain interpreting signals it is sent. In some cases, if the organs creating the signal (eyes, ears etc) are not working optimally, then yes the signal can be improved for a better experience (with reading glasses to improve focus, or hearing aids to improve clarity). This helps people regain quality which was lost over time, so they can tell the difference.

But other people may never have experienced any of those sensations in the first place. In the example above, someone had never experienced a range of colour like we had. Other fantastic examples come from people who have had cochlear implants to enable them to hear, even if they were born deaf. The video below shows the experience of a woman having just undergone the operation hearing for the first time:

In both cases, the new experiences can be somewhat overwhelming, especially if people feel like their life was lacking due to previously missing out on these experiences.

What is important to remember though is that a colourblind person’s experience and way of seeing the world is not wrong.

It is simply different.

An individuals physical feelings, of how they experience the world, is known as Qualia. And the fact that it is so difficult, if not impossible, to specifically understand or explain those is called the explanatory gap.

Michael Stevens at Vsauce has a wonderful explanation of how this works in this video:

For people who are creating things, such as innovations, offerings or artwork, it is important that you therefore remember that other people will not see them in the same way that you do.

Predominantly, this is because you will know what you are producing inside out, with all of its beauty and benefits.

Other people will see it through their own lens, filtered not only based on their previous experiences but also from their knowledge of things like competing products. They will therefore not see it in the same way you do.

So spend the time to think about how to improve the perceived value of what you are offering, rather than just stating how amazing you think it is.

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