If ever there were a mild disability with no stigma or mystery surrounding it, one would think color blindness would fit the bill.
But it doesn't. Here are some comments and questions I've heard from educated people that show how little is known by the public about this mild, but impactful disability.
1. Will he outgrow it?
2. Does he only see black and white?
3. I don't believe in that.
4. He's just not trying very hard.
So let's lay out the basics. Color blindness, or what is now more correctly known as color vision deficiency (CVD), is caused by retina damage. By heredity, the cones responsible for color detection in the retina are either impaired or entirely missing. This means color deficiency is a science, not a belief.
CVD is a permanent condition for which a person can compensate and adjust in all manner of clever ways invisible to you. They will never actually see those colors the way you do, though.
My son's CVD was confirmed by an opthamologist when he was four years old, but I had suspected, and looked for it, knowing he had a 50/50 chance of inheriting it from my dad.
A complete lack of color vision, in which the person sees only in black, white and shades of gray, is extremely rare, and will not be discussed here.
My son has deuteranomaly, which means his green cones are anomalous (damaged) but not missing. The more severe form is called deuteranopia, in which the green cones are missing. There are three levels of severity of CVD.
Following is a description of missing green cones, according to the "Molecular Expressions" web site. Since my son only seems to have damaged green cones, only some of the description fits him. Most of the description fits my dad.
"Individuals with deuteranopia, which is a loss of green sensitivity, have many of the same problems with hue discrimination as do protanopes, but have a fairly normal level of sensitivity across the visible spectrum.
"Because of the location of green light in the center of the visible light spectrum, and the overlapping sensitivity curves of the cone receptors, there is some response of the red and blue photo receptors to green wavelengths.
"Although deuteranopia is associated with at least a brightness response to green light (and little abnormal dimming), the names red, orange, yellow, and green seem to the deuteranope to be too many terms for colors that appear the same. In a similar fashion, blues, violets, purples, and lavenders are not distinguishable to individuals with this color vision defect."
The last statement, about the blues, violets, purples, and lavenders being too many words for the same thing, is definitely true for my son. On the other hand, reds, yellows and greens do look a little different to him. For my dad, it's all too many words.
More facts about CVD
2. Fewer than one percent of females has some form of CVD.
3. A diagnosis of CVD is often overlooked in elementary schools.
4. Children with CVD can fall behind in school, due to heavy reliance on color-coded materials in the younger grades. These children guess at answers, leading the teacher to believe the child needs more instruction in the content area.
5. Children with undiagnosed CVD wonder what's wrong with them--why they can't see what everyone else sees. They often mistake this problem for cognitive impairment. They think they don't understand their colors.
6. Adults with undiagnosed CVD may think they are "fashion-impaired."
7. Teachers are not trained in understanding CVD, even art teachers.
8. Children with CVD become frustrated in physical education activities and sports that depend upon color recognition of objects, such as jumping into the correctly colored hoop.
Reputable, unique sites related to CVD
- Ishihara Test for Color Blindness
- This test is a nice initial screening, but you should follow up with your doctor because computer display colors can vary a little bit.
- Outing My Kids
- True story by Linda Moran about three of her kids that have something different about them--one of them has color deficiency.
This essay was published by Exceptional Parent, the most widely read national magazine for parents and professionals in the disability community. - Molecular Expressions
- This site is owned by the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory of Tallahassee, Florida, which is operated by Florida State University.
This web site offers a picture of the visible light spectrum, which you can adjust to show how the spectrum appears to three types of color-deficient people.
My son is a mild deuteranope. If you center the radio button on the picture to be exactly in-between "normal" and "deficient," you will see the light spectrum as my son sees it.
My dad is a moderate to severe deuteranope. Move the button on the picture about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way to the right, and you'll get a pretty good idea of the range of colors my dad can see. - Colorblind Web Page Filter
- Fascinating tool that lets you type in a URL of any web page select the type of color deficiency, and then view that page to see how a person with the selected type of CVD sees the page.
This tool can help webmasters to spot any difficulties caused by choice of a color that might easily be replaced with a less troublesome color. - Color Blindness: More Prevalent Among Males
- Research and articles about the sense of vision. Learn more about how humans see, how the eye works, color blindness, and more. From the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
- What Teacher and Parents Should Know About Children Who Are Colorblind
- Colors play a big part in our educational system. We not only have to learn our colors but color-enhanced instructional materials have become commonplace.
Read some simple tips for handling CVD at school. - Color Vision Store
- Color Blindness tests, testing, screening, charts, posters and books for hospitals, clinics, military, aviation, engineers, and more.
- Seeing the world through my son's eyes
- Linda Moran tries on the eyes of her color blind son while driving on the New York State Thruway.
Color screening in school
leaves something to be desired
A little training is needed. New tests, which rely upon recognizable pictures instead of numerics, are recommended. However, testers can use their current tests by asking the child to trace the digit with a q-tip.
The diagnosis can then be confirmed by a pediatric opthamologist.
More about color screening
- Screening for Color Blindness May Be Needed During Eye Exam
- If your eye doctor suspects you have color blindness, which is very common in males, you may undergo simple color vision screening tests during an eye exam.
Fascinating Facts about my son's color deficiency
Fact 1
He tries to understand colors
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In the absence of being able to naturally see colors the way we do, my son attempts to "understand" colors in some kind of academic way.
It doesn't seem to matter that he knows about his damaged cones. It's a pursuit that fascinates him.
At age seven, of all the hundreds of topics he could have chosen for the school science fair, he chose the study of how primary colors, mixed together, make secondary and tertiary colors.
He needed a lot of help, because he couldn't remember which made what! To you and me, it's obvious that purple is kind of reddish and kind of bluish, but my son needs to memorize that fact.
His idea for the written part of the display was to write formulas in big letters, such as "Red + Yellow = Orange." I guess he's hoping to eventually "get it."
Fact 2
He asks academic questions that make us all laugh
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At the age of six, he once asked, "Which is darker, blue or purple." Have you ever thought to ask that question? If so, you may have CVD. Of course, it all depends upon what you're looking at.
He was only trying to find a way to distinguish between the two.
Fact 3
Teal and purple look exactly the same
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On our refrigerator is a picture of a heart, colored by our son at age five with bright teal marker. He drew it for his sister, and presented it to her: "Here Madeline, this purple heart is for you." We refer to our refrigerator picture as the purple heart.
Helpful books about CVD
Seeing Color: It's My Rainbow, Too
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Color is in the Eye of the Beholder
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Coping with Colorblindness
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Color blind stories
"Just treat him normal" said the eye doctor. But he was wrong. Color blindness comes with little frustrations and humorous anecdotes.
To ignore colorblindness is to dismiss a legitimate part of a person's characteristics. Just because we can't see colorblindness doesn't mean it's not there.
I'm collecting color blind stories. Long or short, your story could end up in publication.
Introduce yourself here, and consider emailing me your colorblind anecdote.
Contact Linda Moran
