As you’d expect, a tendency towards color blindness is all down to our genes. Men are found to be color blind more often than women and this is because they have an X and a Y chromosome. A man can inherit an X chromosome from his mother which passes on color blindness.
Complete color blindness (where the viewer is unable to see any color at all) is actually quite uncommon, as is blue/yellow color blindness.
The Problems Caused By Being Colour Blind
So does being Colour Blindness cause problems? What happens for example, when a color-blind man is confronted with traffic lights? How can he differentiate between the red and the green lights? Actually, it’s not so difficult, because it is easy to see when a light is illuminated, even if you can’t actually tell which color it is.
It’s possibly more of a problem when you’re trying to match the colors of clothes together. How do you avoid putting a scarlet pair of trousers together with a clashing orange shirt? Putting a garish tie on on a somber occasion? Again, people who have difficulty discriminating between colors will probably have to label their clothes inside the label – or ask a trusted friend for advice.
Some people see numbers and letters as colors, a condition known as ‘synesthesia’. For example, you might always see the number ten as a red color, and the number two as a brown color. Or perhaps you see different letters of the alphabet in a rainbow of colors.
What Causes Colour Blindness?
On your retina at the back of your eye, you have cells known as ‘cones’. Each cone can decipher colors and combinations of colors. So to see colors correctly, you need all of the red, blue, and green cones necessary. If you don’t have these or they do not function, you will have trouble differentiating between different colors as your brain will not receive the correct messages from your eyes.
You might see a grassy lawn that you know should look green – but it might appear to you as grey.
How Colour Blindness Is Diagnosed
Special tests have been developed by opticians to ascertain the exact degree of color blindness from which a patient suffers. Special colorful diagrams have been developed with a design or shade in the color that is known to be problematic. Somebody with a color issue won’t be able to pick out a pattern or shape.
So men suffer from color blindness more often than women. But unless you are planning on a career like being an interior decorator, fashion designer – or maybe a landscape gardener, color blindness doesn’t need to be a serious issue
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