This Val-de-Marne shopping center is the first in France to adapt to color blind people

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It’s a small revolution for color blind people. The Belle Épine shopping center, in Thiais (Val-de-Marne), has deployed a color coding system via an application to allow them a more inclusive experience during their shopping.

The ColorADD application identifies colors and signage in the aisles and the store’s approximately 220 boutiques. Equipped with their smartphone, customers with this visual impairment take a photo of the product to identify colors in real time. “It’s a good solution when I don’t have anyone around me to confirm a color,” says Yvon Étienne, who doesn’t see red. “It has already happened to me several times that the cashier told me that the ham I bought does not have a nice color. That it is more green than pink! »

Application, glasses…

As a reminder, around 4% of the French population is color blind and this concerns nearlyone in 12 menand one woman in 200. While the shopping center welcomes around 14,000 people per year, nearly 520 visitors could be color blind.

This is the first time thata shopping center offers such a device .

Color blindness impairs more or less severely perception and distinction of colors for people who suffer from it. No treatment exists to combat color blindness, but some solutions have been put in place to help them better identify colors.

In 2022 for example, the Pompidou Centerwas the first museum to offer glasses allowing visitors to discover the true colors of the works on display. The special optical filters of these glasses help to perceive a wider range of colors and to perceive them more distinctly.

Yvon Étienne, who owns them, however cannot wear them to work. Rose-colored glasses don’t really suit his job as a funeral agent. Also, the average price of 300 euros not refunded is not accessible to all color blind people. “The ideal would be for someone to create an application that allows you to see like glasses but with phone camera», suggests Yvon Étienne, head of a Facebook group for people with color blindness.

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