by Bob Monty

Created on: February 23, 2007   Last Updated: March 25, 2007

How do you describe colors to the blind? This is a very interesting question that was proposed to me by my 6th grade English teacher. We were asked to write down how we would describe each color to someone who had not seen them. Immediately, all of my fellow classmates went to put down things such as "Red is the color of fire," and "Black is dark and scary." Some wrote down "Yellow is the color of the sun," and "Blue is like the sky."

I sat in my seat and did not write any of these. I was putting myself in the perspective of a blind person, blocking out the sense of sight. Once I had blocked out all shapes and colors I focused on all of my other senses and feelings. How did each color make me feel? Of course you cannot tell a blind person that blue is the color of the sky. They have no perception of the sky, and blue does not even seem like a color to describe the vast expanse of space above our heads.

I did, in fact, think that yellow was like the sun and red was like fire. But would that really be an effective enough description? The blind cannot see the sun; they only feel its warmth. So would the sun be red too? The class tended to base all of their color descriptions of the actual colors of objects, weaving in the other senses. but you could tell they were basing it off prior experience of seeing objects.

Then, one classmate raised their hand and said, "Purple is the coolness of metal." The class hesitated for a moment in thought before another student exclaimed, "But metal isn't purple! It's gray!" But that wasn't what the question asked. The goal was to get the blind to comprehend this color and its meaning.

I think in order to effectively answer this, you should imagine this scenario: You are put into a room entirely yellow. How do you feel? What are you thinking? Now, you are put into a room entirely blue. How does that make you feel? etc. And, although the answers may vary from person to person, this would be a great way to directly associate colors with feelings and thoughts.

Another interesting perspective on this question is whether colors can only be experienced through sight. Music tends to have several colors within it, perhaps with more dimension than our eyes can see. My piano teacher often tells me to focus on the "color" of this section or asks me to play this harnessing all the colors of the piece. Perhaps it could be possible to explain all the colors of the rainbow simply by playing a piece of music. You may describe a lively piece such as "Puck" as being yellow, bright, and radiant. You may also describe a harsh, sharp, bellowing piece as being black or dark red, and gloomy.

Still, there are still pieces that you cannot describe with a color. How would you describe a "Song without words" by Mendelssohn? Is there really a color to associate with such a composition? It is not red, for that is too harsh of a color to describe it. Not yellow because it is not lively in the least and yellow is bright, but the piece is not. Maybe blue, but that does not capture the true essence of this piece. The same could be said for purple as well. Not black, because although this is in a minor key, it is not as dark as a full black.

In my opinion, we are very limited in fact by our sense of sight. We can only see the colors of our tiny spectrum of visible light rays. There are only a handful colors that we have in our mind, and we, in truth, are very closed minded and don't realize how many other colors exist.

The question should not be how we can describe colors to the blind, but rather, how the blind can describe colors to us.

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