Color Blindness and Gaming Accessibility: Testing Your Setup in 2026
Quick answer: Color vision deficiency affects roughly 1 in 12 men and about 1 in 200 women, and most cases are a mild red-green type. A quick Ishihara-style screen can flag it, though only an eye-care professional can diagnose it. Try the color blindness test in good, neutral lighting.
How screening works
Ishihara plates hide a number in colored dots that is easy to read with normal color vision and hard or impossible with a deficiency. An online version is a useful first check, but screen brightness, calibration and blue-light filters all affect the result, so treat it as a prompt to see an optometrist rather than a diagnosis.
Why it matters for gaming
Games lean heavily on color to convey information — enemy outlines, team colors, status effects, map markers. For a colorblind player, red-green confusion can make some of that invisible. The good news is that colorblind modes have become far more common, letting you remap or strengthen the palette, and many games now offer protanopia, deuteranopia and tritanopia presets. Testing your own vision helps you choose the right preset.
The types in brief
Red-green deficiencies are by far the most common, with deuteranomaly (reduced green sensitivity) the single most frequent and usually mild. Blue-yellow deficiency is rare, and total color blindness is very rare. Knowing which group you fall into makes the accessibility settings far more useful.
Screen, then adjust
Run the color blindness test to get a sense of where you stand, then explore your games' accessibility menus. Our guide on how to test for color blindness explains the method and its limits.
Sources: NHS — Colour vision deficiency · Colour Blind Awareness
Frequently asked questions
Can an online colour blindness test diagnose me?
No. Screen brightness, calibration and blue-light filters all affect the result, so treat an online plate test as a prompt to see an optometrist rather than a diagnosis.
Which colourblind preset should I choose in a game?
The one matching your deficiency group. Many games now offer protanopia, deuteranopia and tritanopia presets, which is why screening first makes the accessibility settings far more useful.
What is the most common type of colour blindness?
Red-green deficiencies are by far the most common, and deuteranomaly — reduced green sensitivity — is the single most frequent and usually mild.
Why does colour blindness matter more in games than elsewhere?
Games lean heavily on colour to convey information: enemy outlines, team colours, status effects and map markers. Red-green confusion can make some of that invisible.