How is color explained to someone who's blind?

Question

Especially to someone blind since birth.

Answer 1

By using analogies from objects and things that he knows, e.g. music. There are some people called "synaesthetic", who for example hear a sound and at the same time see a colour or a shape. Colour and sound are the same. I would use that.

Answer 2

By physics of course.

The explanation would be something like this:

"There are certain things that produce light, for example the sun or the light bulb. Light is an entity that has properties both of a wave and of a particle. Humans who have "vision," which you unfortunately do not have, experience different things when light hits their eyes. Some types of light humans cannot experience at all, humans can only see the light with wavelength 400 to 700 nm.[1] People have different names for what they experience when light of different wavelengths hits their eyes. For example, if the light is between 520–570 nm in wavelength we call it "green", 570-590 -- we call "yellow", etc etc."

You can round up the explanation by providing the person with a digital spectrometer[2] with audio read out. This way the blind person can point the device at different objects and find out what color they are.

Answer 3

A sensation based on the reflection and absorption of rays within the visible spectrum. It's like radio waves for a blind person, you can't sense them yourself, but they are there.

Answer 4

hmm that is an interesting question. maybe you could explain to them the warmth/coolness of the color? such as yellow being a "warmer" color than a green or blue. maybe use the figurative language that sunlight is a yellow or light tone, and a cool breeze is a bluer or darker tone?

Answer 5

thats a great question! I would try to relate color to a physical feeling... perhaps red could be related to something that feels hot. I saw it done that way in the movie Mask. I thought it was very clever

Answer 6

Purple is line inbeetween happy and sad
black is what you see everywhere
Yellow is alarming like a loud sound in a silent room
Green is soothing, like a loved one rubbing your back
Orange is is a sound of thunder roaring everywhere
Red is pinks mother, dark but strong
pink is like children, running wild
blue is like the sound of waves roaring against the rocks in the sea.

Answer 7

Relating colors to moods and emotions. Relating them to other senses aromas, flavors and sounds is the best way to explain them.

Answer 8

well, its not as though they will ever truly understand, but most blind people i know associate color with another sensation. water feels green, aretha franklin sounds purple, grass smells blue, fire feels yellow. i assume they have been taught that.

Answer 9

By taste.
Yellow is tart, like lemons
Red is spicy, like hot tamales
Green is salads, like spinach
Brown is chocolate
Black is bitter, like the rind of a lemon
and so on.

Hope that helps.

Answer 10

Very carefully