Since February is the month (?) of love, I thought I’d write a few posts and call them February hearts meaning things I love (and support).

I will be using the hashtag #feb ❤ and I encourage you to write posts and share things you ❤ until February the 14th. It can be anything you love, but not a person!

So here is my 1st #Feb ❤

I am partially colourblind and have written several posts about what it is like to be colourblind. This is dear to me. It’s very close to home.

Random fact: the proper term in Daltonism.

I ❤ Colourblind Awareness Org

What is colourblind awareness org?

It is an organisation that tries to make life easier for us colourblind gals and lads. It shares colourblind freindly information and takes action when we are being ignored. According to their Facebook page, it is

A UK-based organisation founded to raise awareness of colour blindness and to support colour blind people and their friends and families

It pays special attention to colour blind students and uses the hashtag #1ineveryclassroom to show that there is approximately one colourblind student in every classroom.

So you are colour blind. Big woop!

Why is being colourblind a big deal?

Well, think about it. You have blind, which is not being able to see, and then you have colourblind which is not being able to see any or some colours. I am not going to go into details about the different types of colourblindness. Nope. I will give you a brief very generalised overview though. Seeing black and white is extremely rare. Most people who are colourblind cannot see red/green, and more rarely blue. This also means that they have difficulty seeing shades of these colours and colours that are formed with red, green or blue. When you have other eye problems (like me) colour blindness is even more severe because you cannot see things that are far (taking me as an example) nor their colour!

Now, I just want you, my readers, to take your eyes off this screen and take a look at yourself, your room. How many colours do you see? How do they affect you? Now, imagine you wanna go grab a banana. Will you choose the green or the yellow one? Guess what? I dunno if it is green or yellow.

Now walk into a hospital. She says, “follow the red line” as opposed to the green one. Can you?

You are at the supermarket, can you choose your tomatoes without touching them, just based on what you see? Their colour?

Can you drive? Do you see the traffic lights? The signs?

What about that lipstick that is called sunny brightness? Do you know what colour it is based on the description on the packaging?

You are a student and your teacher says, ” Turn the red words into nouns”. Can you? She then says, ” Check your essay. Orange means spelling mistake, red means grammar mistake, blue means syntax”.

Are you frustrated yet?No?

You are watching the election results, the weather forecast, you are on the London Tube, can you read the map that is colour coordinated?

You need to put document A in the red folder, document B in the green one, and document C in the blue one. Can you?

You are in front of your closet, do you close your eyes and just choose whatever you can touch or do you choose clothes based on what matches? Their colour? Your mood and the colour?

When you go to the bank, the airport, when you take the bus, can you read the red letters on the black background? Do you see the yellow/red/blue taxi? Can you hail it?

Do you see what colour your pen is?

You think you are pregnant. Is the line pink or blue?

Welcome to my life

This is why I support any organisation or person who tries to raise colourblind awareness. Sure, my disability is not life threatening and I will not die of it, but… I cannot see colours the way you can, and there are so many things that I cannot do by myself because of it. So, the next time you choose to colour coordinate take a minute and think about this post. If you are in any position to make a choice that is not colourblind unfriendly, do do so. Please!

Do check out the colourblind awareness org and learn more about colourblindness and see how you can help. ‘Like’ their Facebook page to show your support.

I would really appreciate ANY type of sharing. I am sorry if this may seem like a rant, but I am SICK and TIRED of being asked, ” What colour do you think this is?” Whenever I say I am colour blind. Would you ask a person in a wheel chair to try to walk towards you? Would you ask a deaf person to hear your song? Why would you ask a colour blind person, “What colour do you think this is?” Help raise colour blind awareness and stop colour blind ignorance! (I heard the term C.B.I during Dale Johnson’s talk).

So, this was my first #feb ❤ post. If you choose to write something similar, please let me know :).

Do subscribe to my blog if you like what I have to say (it does help me out and thanks if you do). Connect with me on Pinterest / Twitter/ Instagram. Don’t forget to ‘pin’ this post 🙂

Thanks for reading.

xx