Genetic Discrimination Comes in Many Colors
An email from a regular Genomics Law Report reader notes that we have been engaging unwittingly in genetic discrimination. Dr. Bob West is color-blind, and he points out that our treatment of hyperlinks—to date we have used red hyperlinks against black text in our posts, without any other markings to distinguish linked from ordinary text—creates a real problem for him.
Red-green color blindness, which is the most common form, is an X-linked genetic condition that affects an estimated 7-10% of men in the United States (because it is X-linked, it affects far fewer women). People with red-green color blindness have a difficult time distinguishing red from black characters, which made locating links on the GLR very difficult. To compensate, Dr. West was forced to print out the GLR columns (default print settings typically causes hyperlinks to become underlined, regardless of how they appear on screen) in order to identify the hyperlinks.
The GLR is responding. You will now notice that hyperlinks in the body of GLR columns, including this one, appear red and underlined (beige if you’ve previously visited the link), allowing readers two ways (color and style) to identify hyperlinks.
Remember to share your other comments and suggestions—from examples of inadvertent genetic discrimination to ideas for future columns—by contacting us. Thanks.
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