How can you define the word color to a blind person?(blind since birth)?

Question

How can you define the word color to a blind person?(blind since birth)?

Answer 1

I don't think it is actually so hard with a little imagination.  You compare it to something that is known and suggest it as an example to be extrapolated.

Compare the sense of sight to the sense of touch.  Sandpaper has different grades.  This becomes the electromagnetic spectrum.  It can get rougher or finer.  At some point it can get so fine that you can't feel the texture or so rough that it makes no difference.  Then explain that for those with full or partial color vision the color can take on a meaning that goes beyond vibration.  This is like the same roughness in a different material.  Wood can be as rough as a stone but it "feels" different.  Explain that there are also colorblind people who can "see" colors because they are used to interpreting the scales of gray as "color" but for them the feeling associated with certain colors is missing.

Or play high notes on a piano and call them blue and low notes and call them red.  Once again there are other pitches you cannot hear on both ends and there are other instruments that can play the same notes.  Some notes can have a feeling associated with them.  

As an aside I once saw a remarkable demonstration of a blind person riding a bicycle on a street using a kind of echolocation to navigate.  A clicking sound was being constantly produced and it seemed effective.

Answer 2

how can you read this then..wow..your telented..but umm..just imagine something bright and pretty and..yeah

Answer 3

I would make a comparison between color and tone. Explain that colors are an attribute of vision just like different tones are an attribute of sound. For example, cool colors like blue could be like a low tone, while warm colors like red and yellow could be higher tones. The whole spectrum of visible colors could be like all of the keys on a piano. I hope this idea is helpful!

Answer 4

why would you want to? it's really nothing that they can understand. I would focus on something else.

Answer 5

The essence of an object. The way something is.

Answer 6

I would suggest you read "The Miracle Worker" the story of Helen Kellers life. It is an amazing book and will probably answer your question and more that you might have.

Answer 7

You have a colorblind relative? Oh gees, I always wished to be totally colorblind.

Anyways.. I'd say... it's an object's attribute when exposed to sun.

Wait a second, what if the person isn't fully colorblind? What if the person is red-blind or violet-blind?

Really, your attempt at putting up a good question is epic fail.

Not enough details.

Answer 8

That's a tough one, I think maybe you could just read them the definition, or think about it it's kind of like heat and cold there are so many different heat and cold levels same with color. You could say that red feels like hot and blue feels like cold black being the hottest and white being like the coldest. If you can't see something the next best thing would be for them to feel it. Right maybe then they could understand color works. Run their hand under the water as you describe each color to them. that would be really neat actually I think...but here is the actual definition of color. I don't know maybe that's crazy just a thought

Description of color - American Heritage® Dictionary

NOUN: 1. That aspect of things that is caused by differing qualities of the light reflected or emitted by them, definable in terms of the observer or of the light, as: a. The appearance of objects or light sources described in terms of the individuals perception of them, involving hue, lightness, and saturation for objects and hue, brightness, and saturation for light sources. b. The characteristics of light by which the individual is made aware of objects or light sources through the receptors of the eye, described in terms of dominant wavelength, luminance, and purity. colorer

Additional references: American Heritage® Spanish Dictionary, Columbia Encyclopedia

Hope that helps!! :)

Answer 9

the shade of light =]