Abstract
Red-green colorblindness (colorblindness, partial, deutran series, OMIM #303800) is a common X-linked recessive disorder affecting approximately 8% of the male population. Individuals with this disorder have difficulty perceiving the difference between the primary colors red and green and also experience difficulty perceiving these colors against certain backgrounds. Presentations at medical meetings are very visually oriented. The new computer slide programs allow for very complex and colorful transparencies to be easily created. Comments to the authors from acquaintances with red-green colorblindness regarding their difficulty reading slides that use the colors red and green led to the current study. Thirty-six presentations at the 1998 Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting of the ACMG were attended by one or both of the authors. For each session data was obtained on three parameters: Were slides used, were the colors red and/or green used in text or figures of the slides, how many slides used red and/or green to highlight information critical to the understanding of a slide. Only primary red or green were scored as a positive. Of the 36 presentations, 34 utilized slides. Of these 34 presentations, 19 (56%) used red and/or green. In all cases (19/19 100%) red and/or green was used to highlight information critical to the understanding of at least one slide in these presentations. The average number of critical slides containing red or green highlighted information was 3.1 per presentation. Geneticists should be aware that use of red or green in presentations impairs information transfer to a portion of their audience.
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Williams, M., Williams, J. Visual presentations at 1998 ACMG meeting suggests insensitivity of geneticists to a common genetic disorder. Genet Med 2, 99 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1097/00125817-200001000-00176
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/00125817-200001000-00176