Resources for Colorblind-Safe Colors

When I first heard of colorblindness I was baffled (plus I was like 6).  Apparently my Dad's friend, Mr. Buckland, "couldn't see green."  What?  Anything that's green he just doesn't see?  I pictured in my mind's eye green items being totally invisible: me wearing a green shirt, Mr. Buckland only sees the floating head.  Anyways, now that we have that riveting biographic information out of the way...


ColorBrewer
I am an old fan of the ColorBrewer tool at http://colorbrewer2.org/, via Cynthia Brewer and team.  It is a great and easy resource for identifying optimal color bands depending on the nature of your data.  We have been pointing clients there for a few years and they seem to dig it, too.  What's more, there is a colorblind-safe option that can be really useful.

ColorBrewer: color resource for cartography (plus a colorblind-safe option).

Vischeck
I just learned about this one.  Go to http://vischeck.com/vischeck/vischeckImage.php to upload any image and see a simulation of what it might look like to someone with any one of three types of colorblindness: deuteranope (red/green deficit, around 1% of males), protanope (similar red/green deficit, around 1% of males), and tritanope (blue/yellow deficit, less than 1% of males and females).
When choosing thematic colors for visualizations, it is sometimes startling how similar looking colors of entirely different data categories can look when you see it through the simulations...

Original:

Deuteranope:

Protanope:

Tritanope:

Original:

Deuteranope:

Protanope:

Tritanope:

Original:

Deuteranope:

Protanope:

Tritanope: