NG9 News are pleased to introduce our exciting new young writer Jacob Thomas, his first article with us, highlights an issue which is important to many, this includes himself.

RECENTLY IT WAS COLOUR-BLIND AWARENESS DAY NATIONALLY.

1 in 12 males are colourblind, and I fall into that category. The number of people who struggle with colour-blindness is a lot higher than you might think, and some schools still believe it to be too subtle an issue to aid these students.

But I believe this not to be the case. I feel like it’s a disability that is overlooked by the education system, and the fact that it has been overlooked has negatively impacted my school life, and could impact future generations of kids’ chances of academic success.

AQA, the exam board in which I sat my GCSE geography exam, recently received backlash for having made an exam which was deemed ‘inaccessible’ to colourblind students, some areas of the exam had colour-coded questions, charts and maps. Navigating the exam at times felt impossible, and I felt that it was unacceptable that AQA had put people with colorblindness in this situation.

From my perspective as a person who is red-green colourblind, I believe that education systems need to provide much more support for colour-blind students. Even simple things such as patterns to denote things rather than colour coded questions can go a long way.

Modern attitudes of schools are heavily centred around inclusion, but I feel there is a lack of continuity when it comes to colour-blindness.