Accommodating color vision deficiencies in biomedical publications

Color vision deficiencies, especially red-green types such as deuteranomaly and protanopia, affect many individuals, particularly men, and pose challenges in fields that rely on color-coded visualizations. In biomedical journals, figures such as heatmaps and fluorescence images often use red-green color contrasts that are inaccessible to readers with color vision deficiencies, leading to misinterpretation and reduced clarity. Studies show that a large proportion of scientific figures remain problematic, underscoring the need for inclusive design. This review outlines strategies to improve figure accessibility, including avoiding red-green combinations, adopting perceptually uniform palettes, ensuring luminance contrast, and supplementing colors with patterns or annotations. Providing alternative text and testing figures with colorblindness simulators further enhances usability. Incorporating these practices promotes equitable access to scientific knowledge and strengthens the clarity and impact of published research in biomedical journals and textbooks.