Vision and childhood dreams

Last week, I took the Global Reasoning Test for my application at P&G. After passing the test, we were told to take the online Success Drivers Assessment. But before we were instructed to take it, we were encouraged to watch The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch.

It's a pretty long video (AN HOUR LONG WTF) but I really think it's worth the watch. For one thing, it interested me that he worked on visual reality systems -- which is highly relevant to this blog.

In the video, he mentioned that one of his childhood dreams is to be in zero gravity. (A big btw! Kudos to him for mentioning a psychological term in the first 2 minutes of the video. Hello cognitive dissonance!) Years later, he does end up being in zero gravity -- on board NASA's Vomit Comet.

Now: thinking about NASA made me think about how hard it is to get into NASA. And this, in turn, made me think about the marines -- basically, the military. Getting into the military is pretty hard and I'd rather not name examples (Google is your friend). But I do want to mention that in the past, one disqualifying condition is color blindness (Monlux, Finne, & Stephens, 2010). The history of this disqualification can be traced as far back as the 1800s. Apparently, in 1875, a train crash in Sweden was caused by an engineer's color blindness: causing him to miss a signal and thereby causing the accident.

And I say "in the past."

Signaling with the ground crew, recognizing other aircrafts while flying, and judging the terrain are one of the few tasks that need require normal color vision. But this was in the 1800s. With the technological advancement of the century, we are already able to use computer-based color vision screening. This means that military color vision standards shifted from being one based on test performance, to one based on task performance.

Modern computer-based color vision testing can now reliably identify relevant color deficiencies. This leads to an increase in flight safety and also leads to testing reliability and standardization.

In addition, in a study by Dargahi, Einollahi, and Dashti (2010), they also suggest that color blindness as a medical condition should restrict employment choices for medical laboratory technicians and technologists in Iran. This is because they believe that it keeps one from performing certain jobs and making other tasks difficult to complete. Doctors and medical students with color vision deficiency should take special care to ensure safe clinical practice.

Reference:

Dargahi, H., Einollahi, N., & Dashti, N. (2010). Color Blindness Defect and Medical Laboratory Technologists: Unnoticed Problems and the Care for Screening. Acta Medica Iranica, 48(3), 172-177. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Monlux, D. J., Finne, H. A., & Stephens, M. B. (2010). Color Blindness and Military Fitness for Duty: A New Look at Old Standards. Military Medicine, 175(2), 84-85. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.