Colorblind Student Faces Troubles With Teacher’s Color Markers Rule, Finally Gets Him Suspended

Do you know what Mark Zuckerberg and Christopher Nolan, Vincent van Gogh and George Michael, Paul Newman and Andy Redmayne have in common? All of these people suffered from color blindness to varying degrees – that is, their eyes were unable to distinguish some colors and shades.

In Zuckerberg’s case, by the way, that’s why Facebook’s logo and color scheme are blue – it’s the color most red-green color-blind people see well. But the user u/throwawaywhiteboard0, the narrator of this story, once encountered a situation where another person blatantly ignored her disability. So now, just let’s go on reading.

More info: Reddit

Color blindness affects people in various ways, but combined with blatant human rudeness and arrogance, it hurts even more

Colorblind student attentively reading notes in a lecture hall, highlighting the challenges faced with special needs support.

Image credits: Freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)

The author of the post is a college student, and one of her teachers used a whiteboard and color markers for his explanations

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Image credits: Freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)

The author is color blind, so she asked the teacher to use a blue marker so that she could distinguish the colors, and so he did

Text excerpt from a colorblind student explaining her request to a professor to use a blue pen for better visibility.

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However, the next time the teacher took the red and green markers again, he even belittled the student in return for her second request

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Image credits: throwawaywhiteboard0

The author reported him to the head of the school, and the rude teacher got suspended soon after

So, the Original Poster (OP) is a 19-year-old college student, and she recently encountered an example of outrageous rudeness from one of her professors. During his lectures, this man typically used a whiteboard and two markers, one green and one red, to draw various diagrams and accompanying notes.

The only problem is that the author is colorblind, so to her, the green and red colors effectively blend together, appearing as a single shade. The student politely asked the professor to use a blue marker because otherwise she would have difficulty distinguishing one diagram from another on the whiteboard, and he did so in the first lecture.

However, in the very next lecture, he again drew only with green and red markers, but when our heroine raised her hand and again asked him to take a blue marker, the man flatly refused. Moreover, he condescendingly “explained” that he had already drawn many diagrams in red and green, “so she wouldn’t understand anything anyway!”

The OP was in despair, but another student helped her with her notes. She photographed all the drawings and diagrams for her, replacing one of the colors with blue. As for the teacher, the author reported this case to the head of the school, and by the next lecture, it became clear that the toxic guy had been suspended. So the OP was in two minds whether she was right to ruin his career over her case.

Person drawing a political climate confidence graph on a whiteboard, highlighting challenges faced by colorblind students.

Image credits: Thirdman / Pexels (not the actual photo)

The phenomenon of color blindness itself is sometimes called “daltonism” – named after the renowned English scientist John Dalton, who first described it in detail, based on his own experiences. The most common form of color blindness is red-green. In this case, the human retina simply lacks the pigment responsible for recognizing red or green colors.

Unfortunately, color blindness is currently incurable, although special lenses and mobile apps exist that can partially help with this vision problem. Color blindness is still a contraindication for some jobs. For example, the famous singer George Michael wanted to become a pilot in his youth, but was rejected due to being color blind.

As for Vincent van Gogh’s paintings, for example, his unique color palette was most likely also due to the great artist’s color blindness. At the same time, many educational institutions today insist that educators accommodate color-blind students to enable them to fully participate in their studies.

Most commenters fully supported the original poster, arguing that the professor perhaps just wanted to go on a power trip about it. However, responders were glad that this crude attempt at self-affirmation at the expense of a student cost the teacher dearly. So what do you, our dear readers, think about this story? Please feel free to leave your comments here.

People in the comments sided with the author, claiming that the arrogant teacher probably just wanted to go on a power trip about this

Reddit thread discussing a colorblind student confronting a professor about special needs accommodations at university.

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