Colorblind Zoom Time

Click anywhere on canvas to experience red/green colorblindness.
See it in P5 editor if you don't see yourself here. see the code

The design process

The inspiration for this piece came from a WSJ article on what user experience is like for colorblind people. (WSJ article) It struck me that a technology as common as Zoom can still fail people with disability. In its current version, Zoom interface uses red and green to highlight key features. This poses a challenge for people with the most common form of color blindness- red/green color blindness. This is why I want to use the pixel array and the webcam in P5 to experience the view of a colorblind person in Zoom. Coding this assignemnt asnwers a question for me- what is a common experience like for people with disability?

Simulate zoom interface in P5

First, I seperated a screenshot of the zoom interface into top and bottom frames. This was done so that the P5 canvas can be filled with webcam feed.

Then I used a colorblind simulator to find out what the colors the interface would be in the eyes of a red-green colorblind zoomer.

Reflection

Through this project, I am reminded of the importance of improving accessibility. Even for a tool as common as Zoom, accessibility can remain challenging for many people. This experimental camera enabled me to see in other people's eyes, and empathize with their problem through experience. Beyond this assigment, I think I would start using simulation as a way to test accessibility of my work.