EnChroma, Inc. – inventor of eyewear for color blindness – and SeeCoast Manufacturing Co. announced that three more organizations will offer specially adapted scenic viewers for those with color blindness.
The SeeCoast viewers, powered by EnChroma’s patented lens technology for color blindness, will enable people with red-green color blindness to experience the beauty of birds and wildlife at the J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island, FL; appreciate the view of Mount Hood from the City of Sandy, OR; and marvel at the scenery at Amicalola Falls State Park in northeast Georgia.
“The ability to see the colors of nature at some of the most beautiful locations on earth can be an evocative and exhilarating experience for those who are color vision deficient,” said Tony Dykes, co-founder and CEO of EnChroma. “Along with SeeCoast, we are excited that these organizations have chosen to make the colorful attractions that draw millions of people to them accessible to the 350 million people in the world with color vision deficiency.”
“We applaud these organizations for being the first outside the state of Tennessee to accommodate color blind guests with these special viewers,” said Geraldine L. Cain, owner and president of SeeCoast Manufacturing Co. “Interest in affording color blind visitors the opportunity to see the natural world in truer color has been strong and we expect more cities, state and federal parks to follow suit soon.”
SeeCoast viewers, powered by EnChroma, help those with red-green color blindness to more fully experience the rich panoply of colors at state parks, scenic overlooks, wildlife refuges and other locations. One in 12 men (8%) and 1 in 200 women (.5%) are color vision deficient; 13 million in the U.S. alone. While people with normal color vision see over one million shades of color, those with color vision deficiency only see an estimated 10% hues and shades. As a result, their color spectrum is more limited and their world view is duller, muted and certain colors are difficult to differentiate.
For images illustrating how people with color blindness view colorful settings at J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge and Mount Hood from the City of Sandy, click here. Installation of the viewers will be announced in the near future, and a public dedication ceremony for each organization will be held contingent upon developments related to COVID-19. The Tennessee Department of Tourist Development was the first to introduce viewers to enable color blind visitors to see the changing colors in Fall foliage at 12 parks and scenic overlooks.