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What Is It Like To Be Color Blind?

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You probably do not run into many people that are color blind, but there are a good number of people in the population that struggle to see the same colors as those that are not. It is estimated that about 1 out of 20 people have a degree of color blindness. What this means is that they do not see all of the colors that are in existence.

Many people think that if someone is color blind, they cannot see any colors. This is not true, as they do see a variety of colors. If you have ever seen or heard about a rainbow, you know that the colors of a rainbow are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. Someone that is color blind will not be able to see all of that spectrum of colors. What colors they see when they look at a flower garden or movie screen is different for them, as they may not see the reds as reds or the greens as greens.

What colors does a color-blind person see?

Most people who are color blind have a difficult time seeing reds and greens. Most commonly, they see red and green as the same exact color. There are also various degrees of severity. For example, one person may not see any red pigment at all, but another person may see a light shade of red.

Causes

Most people that have color vision problems are born with the problem. It occurs because of the cone cells in the retina lack color-sensitive pigment. Though mostly hereditary, it can occur due to aging, an eye injury, various eye problems, or medication side effects. There are a lot of eye disorders that can be cured and operated. There is a great variety of methods and special ophthalmic tools used in modern medicine. But unfortunately, there are eye disorders that can’t be cured nowadays. Color blindness is among them. Fortunately, it can be corrected with the help of special glasses and lenses.

Types

There are different names for the various severities. The most common types of color blindness are called deuteranomaly and protanomaly. Those that have ineffective red cones have deuteranomaly, which is the most common type of color blindness. Those that have ineffective green cones have protanomaly. In rare cases, some experience monochromacy, which means that they only see black, white, and some shades of gray.

Everyday life

If you have color blindness, your life will not differ much from someone who does not. You will simply see fewer colors than others or see a different color or shade. It is nothing that should hold you back in life and you will learn how to adjust after a while.

For example, if you have a difficult time with reds and greens, you might think it would be difficult to see traffic light colors, but it only takes knowing that the top color when lit means stop (usually it would come across green/grayish) and the bottom color when lit up means go. You will learn to adjust based on what colors you do see and also by knowing that for example, if you see reds as greens, things that you see that are green you will automatically know others see it is red.

Resources to help you see like the colorblind

If you want to know what it is like to be color blind, there are various websites that offer tools and resources to give you a chance to see things as they do. For example, Color Vision Testing is a website that has different pictures revealing what people who are color blind might see in comparison to those that do not have color vision issues. You can also take certain tests to see if you suffer from a type of color disorder.