The man who was born blind explained how he perceives colors, and his reflections have affected the perspective of many internet users: “How can the sky and ice be the same color?”.
The man who was born blind explained how he perceives colors, and his reflections have affected the perspective of many internet users.
Tommy Edison often shares what life is like for a person who cannot see on his YouTube channel, The Tommy Edison Experience.
His humorous and honest approach to his disability has helped millions of people understand a bit better the life of blind people. In one of his videos, Edison talked about one of the biggest curiosities people have about him: his perception of colors.
For those who can see, they are everywhere; they are part of our lives like the air we breathe—automatic. But how do you explain what green is, what yellow feels like, or what red is to a person who has no visual references?
“Being blind from birth, I’ve never seen colors,” Edison says in the video. “I have no idea what they are. I’ve never seen anything. But there’s this whole vocabulary, this language, that doesn’t mean anything to me.”
For him, it’s like trying to explain the sound of the ocean or the singing of birds to someone who has never heard. “No concept. None,” he says.
Edison knows what a red traffic light means, just as he knows that being “in the red” means financial problems, but these are pieces of information he hears that don’t explain what red is.
“Blue is water. Cold or ice is blue. The sky is blue,” he says. “How can the sky and ice be the same thing? That’s strange to me. The same color means two completely different things. I don’t understand,” he reveals.
“And there are things that don’t have color, like water,” he says. “It has no color, but the ocean does. I don’t understand that. Color is hard.” It’s hard to explain color to someone who has never seen color since it’s 100% a visual concept.”
Edison’s perspective on color led people to try to “see” things like him, which is practically impossible, but it inspired many to think about how to explain colors to someone who can’t see, which can be a true exercise in empathy and understanding.
“My neurons started working hard to think about how to explain to a blind person what ‘a color’ is,” commented one internet user on the post.
“Color is like the taste of sight, it just gives objects an ‘extra flavor’ instead of making them opaque,” wrote another.
“Imagine a color that has never existed and try to explain it,” challenged a third.
This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
