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Color Blind Firefighters
I need your help!!! I have been denied employment for being Color Blind and am fighting it. I have over 10 years experience and have graduated from 2 Fire Academies!! I currently work for a private department and am trying to get hired by a municipal. Everywhere I turn I hear a story of someone already employed as a Firefighter or even as Law Enforcement and I have come to believe that my story is more common than I thought. If you are Color Blind and hired on, can you please tell me your story, maybe a first name and state and city you are hired in. I am trying to fight this on behalf of all others who might have gotten the raw end of the deal. I have done a tremendous amount of research and there are no credable studies or anything having to do with this as to a medical fact on why I cannot practice. Even the NFPA says that I should be able to. Please share your story so that we can end this type of discrimination. Thanks!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by SHONDA on
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That is absoutely ridiculous!!! We don't have any paid FireFighters but I can tell you that the best Cpt. that we have in our department is color blind. There isn't anything that he can't do as good and even better that anyone else. I hope everything works out for you and Good Luck!
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Permalink Reply by DUST on
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I know a few guys on the job that are color blind and my dad is a retired cop who has been color blind forever...if you do not think your color blindness would affect your ability to do your job then this is one situation where honesty is not the best policy. They test your vision but they don't do an eye exam that makes you identify colors do they?
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Permalink Reply by Joe Smith on
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Yes, they give you a color test as well as an eye exam. Unfortunately I believe honesty is the best policy. I had an opportunity to cheat, but chose to take the high road. Now because of that I am having to fight for a position that I am well qualified for.
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Permalink Reply by chele on
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We have a color blind fireman on our department. Aside from him having to put up with a bunch of good natured kidding (We've threatened to paint his Tanker pink, for example) being color blind has never been a problem for him. I can't believe any fire department would make an issue of it.
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Permalink Reply by Jason Brooks on
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What logic are they using to deny your employment due to color blindness? You may want to contact your states employee relations board and ask if this is even legal. The problem for you is that they will think you are a trouble maker before even hiring you. Double edged sword I know. Good Luck.
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Another thought, what about the Americans With Disabilities Act? I thought that protected people from discrimination?
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Permalink Reply by Chad Furr on
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I would not see where being color blind should be an issue. Completely blind YES. But what do you need to really be able to see color for in a structre fire?
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Permalink Reply by Mick Shelley on
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The only thing that comes to mind when you need to know what collor something is, is when you come to determining the collor of a chemical warning placqe where you need to know what chemicals are being stored.
Then again you can always ask. I wish you the best, I hope you can find away around this, and let me ask what is their reason for this policy, and who implemented it ????
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Permalink Reply by keith on
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i am color blind... im a vol. ff and i have never had a problem with my vision being a problem... i dont know what the big deal with being color blind is you learn how to deal with it..... its just crazy to read that you got denied because of it...im about to graduate from frie school i hope i dont have to deal with this same problem. good luck with it
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Permalink Reply by Chuck Gunter on
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Well Joe I agree with you in that I dont agree with that being an issue with your job. I am a paid ff and I was tested for color blindness. If I couldnt pass the test I would not have been hired. There are a couple of things that come to mind with the issue. If someone said charge the red line and you charged the orange one or like Captain Shelly stated about the Haz-Mat placards. that could be an issue although I dont think its that big of a deal my self... I wish you the best of luck......
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Well my friend, I also fought the same battle in P.G. Md. I was trying to go paid and passed everything but the color chart. Oh well to the federal dept I went and got hired as a temp for two yrs. No luck anywere else. Now the best part is I have been volunteering in the same county for 37 years as well as a chief in my dept. I can tell the paid firefighters what to do but I can`t be paid. As far as the stripes on the hose, they put a peice of intertube on the layouts with numbers on them for me in 1975. It worked. A delegate named Sue Mills had the rule bent, but it was to late for my age. My friend, DON`T ever give up the dream. You will make it, I hope, and have a hell of a ride. Maybe try federal fire. What ever you do ,I wish you the best of luck. Eddie
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