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Colour Blindness

What is colour blindness?
Human eyes have cone cells that react to brighter lights and help us to see details more clearly. People with colour blindness – or ‘defective colour vision’ as it is properly called – sometime have fewer cone cells than most people. This means that their eyes cannot see certain colours and / or that some colours look different to the way they look to people without colour blindness.

Colour blindness can affect a person’s ability to see or recognise a range of different colours. The way a person sees green, red, yellow and other colours, can all be affected. However, it is only a very small percentage of people who can’t see colours beyond black and white and shades between.

Colour blindness is a lot more common than you might think – with 1 in 10 boys and men affected. However, most people who have colour blindness are male – only 1 in 200 girls and women are affected.

People have colour blindness from birth – it’s not uncommon, therefore, for many people not to realise they are colour blind until much later in life. Put simply, they don’t know that they see things differently to other people. A colour blind person may be able to say the correct name for a colour when asked what colour something is – when in fact they are seeing a different colour to most people.

How can I tell if I am colour blind?
If you think you might be colour blind – you might mix up the names of colours or you might find it difficult to tell the difference between some colours – speak to your teacher, a parent, your GP or an optician or eye specialist. Finding out if you are colour blind involves a very simple test. You are shown a card with a bunch of coloured spots on – if you can’t see certain letters, numbers or patterns in the dots, then you have a form of colour blindness. The test can also identify what kind of colour blindness you have. The test doesn’t take long.

Can you stop or treat colour blindness?
The simple answer is no, it’s an inherited condition. There are no treatments for colour blindness – the important thing is to find out whether you are colour blind or not. It shouldn’t impact negatively on your life although there are a small number of jobs that colour blind people can’t / shouldn’t do.

Links and contact details

Name: BBC’s Health Site – Colour Blindness Page
Web: http://www.bbc.co.uk/health/mens_health/issues_colour.shtml#can_i_stop_it?
Email:
Tel:
Info:

Name: NHS Direct Wales
Web: http://www.nhsdirect.wales.nhs.uk/small/en/home/healthencyclopaedia/c/colourvisiondeficiency
Email:
Tel: 0845 46 47
Info: For info and advice on all kinds of non emergency health issues.

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