A former Edinburgh GP and Lothians MSP has lodged a petition with The Scottish Government.
Dr Ian McKee who was a member of The Scottish Parliament between 2007 and 2011, would like the government to facilitate changes to publicly owned buildings to help those with colour blindness.
He said: “I am one of about 250,000 of all Scottish men suffering from colour blindness and frustrated that next to nothing is done to make life easier for us. In fact things are becoming slightly more difficult with the advent of unisex cubicle toilets and the difficulty of telling if one is occupied.
“For example, the new toilets in The Queens Hall are now unisex and there is a sign saying that those with a green light on are free – not much use if you can’t tell green from red! Even the eye department of NHS Golden Jubilee Hosptial in Glasgow, to which many Edinburgh people are referred, advises patients to follow the green line to the surgical department.
“I appreciate these and other examples are relatively minor irritations but most are easily remedied and I can only assume it is thoughtlessness that prevents this happening. To make a start I have presented a petition to the Scottish Parliament and this has been accepted for consideration. I am now hoping that many will sign it so that it has a chance of being passed on from the parliament to The Scottish Government for action.”
PE2138: Make publicly owned buildings accessible for people with colour blindness
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to make the design and signage for publicly owned buildings accessible for people with colour blindness.
Background information
Colour blindness, mainly an impaired ability to distinguish between red and green, affects about one in twelve Scottish men and one in two hundred women. Despite this frequency very little if anything has been done to make life easier for colour blind people, indeed things are slightly worse. For example, once the signage on public toilet doors was ‘vacant’ or ‘engaged’ but now it is usually red or green and the recent proliferation of unisex toilet cubicles drives men to use cubicles when before a urinal in a men only toilet would have been used. Hospitals use red and green lines to direct patients and graphs on government documents use colour to differentiate trends. Just a few examples.
https://petitions.parliament.scot/petitions/PE2138
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