Colourblindness

What is color blindness?

Colour blindness is a condition in which a person has trouble telling the difference between various shades of colour. Colour blindess does not mean that a person sees things in black and white. Generally, Optometrists and Doctors refer to the condition as 'colour vision deficiency.'

Who is affected by color vision deficiency?

Almost all colour vision problems are inherited, and present at bith. It is estimated that 1 in every 12 males, and one in every 200 females, are born with some form of color vision deficiency.

In later life, some serious eye diseases, and certain medications can cause colour vision deficiencies to appear.

How is a colour vision deficiency inherited?

The 'colourblindness gene' is passed down through the mother's side of the family.

A colourblind male will have inherited the condition through his mother's genes (although she will probably not be colourblind).

A colourblind female will have inherited the condition through a combination of her mother's genes (probably not colourblind) and her father's genes (colourblind).

Who should be tested for color vision deficiency?

People who should have there colour vision checked

Colour vision testing is fairly simple, and can be carried out with little difficulty from the age of 3 years (the child doesn't have to know the names of the colours).

What can be done about color blindness?

Medically, there is no cure for hereditary colorblindness, because the body lacks a given sensor for detecting particular colours.

Colourblind people often look for other cues to determine colour. For example, if you couldn't tell the difference between the red and the green at a traffic light, you could still tell that the top light meant stop!

Other means of compensating for colour blindness have been developed, such as specially tinted glasses. There are even computer programs available to help colour blind people distinguish colours.

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