Color Blindness and Employment

A friend of mine has an interview for a local dsl company. Someone told him that he could not be colorblind in order to get this position since has to work with wires and such. He has a friend who is an optomologist and he did an unofficial color blind exam on him. The doctor stated that my friend was not 100% color blind- he could see reds and greens just fine. But that he did have a problem with blues and purples, therefore, that made him 50% color blind. When he sees blues and purples he can tell the difference (we've tested him with crayons and fabrics), but he cannot tell the differences on the color blind tests (the circle things). Since he can see the colors just fine in "real life" do you think this will affect him getting the job? And do they do a color blind test when you go for just a regular physical?

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

The standards are set by the company. They will often specify the test of color that he has to pass.

JCH IIII MD

[JodieJ]

My sister used to work as an in-house lawyer for a phone company.  An employee had sued the company when he was fired due to his color blindness.  (Apparently he had been connecting the red wire to the blue socket, with disastrous results.)  The employee won his law suit, with a large settlement.  Go figure.

[AnnaE]

Perhaps there was nothing about color perception in the job description/application. In this case, the plaintant could not exactly claim discrimination, unless the court claimed the company could have considered him for another job.

In the case of an eye exam, make sure that the instructions for the doc are in writing, if possible, and good luck!  Also, check out the job description. If it comes up, you could talk with the doc about the "unofficial" test that you had, and see if a detailed result can be written up to the effect that you are not 100? color blind.

[AnnaE]

Perhaps there was nothing about color perception in the job description/application. In this case, the plaintant could not exactly claim discrimination, unless the court claimed the company could have considered him for another job.

In the case of an eye exam, make sure that the instructions for the doc are in writing, if possible, and good luck!  Also, check out the job description. If it comes up, you could talk with the doc about the "unofficial" test that you had, and see if a detailed result can be written up to the effect that you are not 100% color blind.