Colour-blindness and publications and services containing coloured information

13.4.2007

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2208/07
by Reino Paasilinna (PSE)
to the Commission

There are tens of millions of colour-blind people in Europe. The most common form of the condition, red-green colour blindness, affects some 30 million EU citizens.

Many publications, such as maps, containing important information in colour, are impossible for colour-blind people to decipher. The problem could be easily overcome by adding various types of stippling or lining in place of the problematic colours.

What has the Commission done and what does it propose to do to ensure that these obstacles, which render the lives of colour-blind people unnecessarily difficult, are removed in Europe?

How has the Commission responded to the needs of colour-blind people in the production of its own publications?

OJ C 45, 16/02/2008