Let’s face it. Most of us who aren’t colorblind take for granted our ability to view the world through a full spectrum of colors.
Sure, we may marvel at the brilliant hues of a beautiful sunset or a firework display or a landscape strewn with mountain wildflowers. But in those moments, how often are we thinking about all the photoreceptors in our retinas performing admirably?
More likely than not… never.
We breath oxygen. We rant on social media. We see in color. These are basic aspects of the human experience. What’s to think about?
And yet, colorblindness, or color vision deficiency, is fairly common. Approximately 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women are colorblind. Estimates on the number of people worldwide who have some sort of color vision deficiency range from 300 million to more than 350 million. (By comparison, the entire population of the U.S. is around 330 million.)
Seeing in Color
More than likely, you know someone who has a difficulty differentiating all the colors on the color spectrum. And most of those individuals simply have learned to live with it.
But some forms of color vision deficiency can be alleviated with special eyewear.
We’ve come across three recent videos of colorblind people using colorblind eyewear to help them differentiate colors. We hope you enjoy watching these clips as much as we have. (Note: The emotion meter increases with each video.)
The first is from a museum in New Orleans that has made colorblind eyewear available to patrons. (Imagine seeing a painting for the first time!)
The Ogden Museum of Southern Art and the state of Louisiana have partnered with EnChroma. Watch the news report from FOX 8 New Orleans:
Here’s an Instagram post from the museum:
The second is from a bride at Disney World donning colorblind eyewear for the first time. (She had no idea her bouquet included pink roses. She’d thought they were all white.)
Video courtesy of FOX 35 Orlando.
The third is of a young boy from New Mexico whose reaction to wearing colorblind eyewear will melt your heart. (Literally.)
This one comes to us via ABC 7 Los Angeles.
More on Colorblindness
It should be noted that the term colorblind is a bit of a misnomer. In fact, most “colorblind” people can see colors.
The American Optometric Association explains:
“Most people with color vision deficiency can see colors. The most common form of color deficiency is red-green. This does not mean that people with this deficiency cannot see these colors altogether, they simply have a harder time differentiating between them.”
However, even using terms such as red-green deficient to describe forms of colorblindness is somewhat lacking.
According to color-blindness.com: “The term red-green color blindness is often used but actually not quite correct. Every type of color vision deficiency affects the whole color spectrum and therefore cannot be reduced to just certain colors.”
A small percentage of the population (1 in 30,000 worldwide) have achromatopsia and only see in black and white.
Final thoughts
— Did you know that dogs are not actually colorblind? Well, they are… and they aren’t! (We won’t spoil it for you here.) Check out No. 13 on this list of 50 facts about colorblindness.
— Want to check if you are colorblind? Of course, it is best to consult with your eye doctor. But there are numerous tests available online. We just happened to take the one at EnChroma. Others include OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation (here) and Research to Prevent Blindness (here).