Misconceptions about color blindness make it harder to detect.
Color blindness is the common name for a group of eye conditions that affect a person’s ability to distinguish colors. Although color blindness is more common than you might expect, misconceptions are widespread about what color blindness is and what it means for people affected by it—so much so that some people don’t even realize they have it until adulthood.
Because it’s a condition that’s often invisible, many people with normal color vision don’t have much reason to think about color blindness. But a surprising amount of day-to-day life relies on color, and when you struggle to access that information, the results can be anywhere from inconvenient to outright dangerous. Fortunately, there are ways to accommodate color blindness, and assistive tools that color blind people can use.
As with any condition, the earlier color blindness is identified, the more effective help can be (and the less time people spend struggling). With that in mind, here are some of the common myths about color blindness, and the facts that can help you identify it—or just make the world a little friendlier for color blind folks.
Myth 1: Color blindness means only seeing in black and white.
Fact: There are multiple kinds of color blindness. The most common is red-green color blindness.
Congenital red-green color blindness is a genetic condition that affected people are born with, and it’s surprisingly common—around 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women experience it. People with this condition see red and green as similar colors that are difficult (or impossible) to tell apart. Because most other colors incorporate a bit of red or green, this condition can make it hard to identify other shades too.
Other types of color blindness include:
- Congenital blue-yellow color blindness: Like red-green color blindness, this involves trouble distinguishing between blue and yellow.
- Blue-cone monochromacy: The eyes only have one functioning type of color-sensing cell (blue).
- Achromatopsia (rod monochromacy): No working color sensors, and no color vision.
These other types of color blindness are rarer, and often come with other vision impairments like blurry vision and sensitivity to light.
Myth 2: Color blindness only affects men.
Fact: Color blindness can affect anyone, but congenital red-green color blindness is more common in men.
Although there are other ways to acquire color blindness, it’s often related to your genetics, and can be passed on from parent to child. The gene that causes red-green color blindness is located on the X chromosome. Most men only have one X chromosome, and most women have two—so when women have a gene for red-green color blindness on one X chromosome, they often (but not always) have a “backup” normal gene on the other X chromosome. Those odds mean that around 8% of men are red-green color blind to some degree, but only 0.5% of women are—those that have the color blindness gene on both of their X chromosomes.
Other types of color blindness can have genetic causes, but they aren’t linked to sex chromosomes in the same way, so they occur more evenly across men and women. And of course, color blindness with environmental causes like age, medications, or injury can happen to anyone.
Myth 3: Color blindness is always genetic.
Fact: Color blindness can also be caused by external factors like aging, other eye conditions, or side effects of medication.
As we age, we naturally lose some of our ability to distinguish colors. Age-related eye conditions like cataracts, which make vision cloudy, can also contribute to the problem. Damage to vision-related structures like the retina, the optic nerve, or parts of the brain can also affect color vision—and that damage can be caused by an injury, by exposure to certain chemicals, or even by a bad reaction to medication. In some cases, the color blindness is temporary, but it can also become permanent.
Myth 4: Color blindness doesn’t impact your life very much.
Fact: Some types of color blindness are mild, but others can have major effects on health, jobs, and quality of life.
Just look at stoplights! Not being sure whether the light is red or green could cause a serious safety issue. Many places are aware of the problem and have found ways to accommodate color blind drivers, either by giving the lights different shapes, or standardizing their locations—but it’s not universal.
Digital design choices can also be a challenge for color blind people. User interfaces on apps and websites, in operating systems, and even in video games can all depend on color in a way that some people can’t access.
Also, some jobs require sharp vision in general, and strong color vision in particular. People with color blindness might not be able to work in certain healthcare or military roles, as pilots or conductors, or handle graphic design or visual arts tasks. In some cases, these hurdles are informal or flexible, depending on how seriously affected the person is—but some military and first-responder roles, for example, explicitly require normal color vision.
Because color blindness is often genetic and affects the light-sensing cells in the eye, some forms come with other visual symptoms as well. Blue-cone monochromacy and achromatopsia both affect multiple types of cone cells (color-sensing cells) in the eye. As a result, affected people tend to experience a range of serious effects.
They often have blurry vision that can’t be corrected with lenses, and are painfully sensitive to bright light. They also might have abnormal muscular behaviors in their eyes, like nystagmus (quick, involuntary eye movements) and problems with the iris (the ring of muscle that controls how much light enters the eye). Together, these symptoms can add up to severe vision impairment.
Myth 5: There’s nothing you can do about color blindness.
Fact: Accessible design can help color blind people navigate the world much more comfortably. Assistive technology, eyewear, and even gene therapies exist and are continually improving.
As awareness of color blindness increases, more products and services are including accessible features for color blind users. High-contrast or alternative color modes on screens and in games help color blind users interact more easily. Technology can also help to “see” for color blind people, with color pickers or camera overlays that identify the colors in an image by name or code.
Color blind people can also use lenses to help distinguish colors. Tinted glasses or contacts can make the contrast between some colors more obvious. Other types of eyewear use a filter to “tune out” the part of the light spectrum where red and green overlap, which can make it easier for some red-green color blind people to see the difference.
Researchers are also actively studying possible gene therapies for the genetic causes of color blindness, which would involve inserting working versions of color vision genes into the affected cells in the retina. Gene therapy isn’t widely available for humans yet, but scientists have had success in animal trials, and in treating more severe forms of achromatopsia in children.
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