How does color blindness affect vision?

And no, being color blind does not mean living in a black-and-white movie from the 1950s! In fact, people with monochromatism (seeing only shades of grey) are extremely rare! But you are probably wondering what vision looks like for someone with color blindness? Is there only one type of color blindness?

Color blindness is actually a topic often discussed during World Sight Day to raise awareness about its existence and its impact on vision.

Today, I’m going to explain the different types of color blindness and try to show you how each type changes the way people see the world!

How does color perception work?

Before explaining how color blindness affects vision, let’s first look at how your eyes perceive colors!

In the center of your retina, you have small cells called “cones”. You have three types of cones, each responsible for detecting one of the three primary colors: red, green, and blue.

To identify colors, these cones act as receptors that send information to the brain through your optic nerve. Then, your brain analyzes all this information. Pretty clever, right?

For people with color blindness, one or more of these three color spectrums have an abnormality or simply do not work properly.

What are the different types of color blindness?

Careful, we’re going to use a few complicated terms, but don’t worry, they’re not that difficult to understand.

Here are the different types of color vision disorders linked to color blindness.

Abnormal Trichromacy

This condition affects people whose one of the three cones has a receptor abnormality. There are three types:

- Protanomaly: affects the perception of the color red

- Deuteranomaly: affects the perception of the color green

- Tritanomaly: affects the perception of the color blue

Dichromacy

Dichromacy occurs when one of the cone receptors does not work at all. There are also three types:

- Protanopia: no perception of the color red

- Deuteranopia: no perception of the color green

- Tritanopia: no perception of the color blue

Monochromacy

Monochromacy only occurs in very rare cases. It is the complete dysfunction or absence of all cone cells. In this case, the person has the most severe form of color blindness and cannot perceive any colors. They therefore see the world in shades of grey.

What causes color blindness?

In most cases, color blindness is caused by a hereditary condition and is passed down through chromosomes.

In rare cases, certain medications or diseases can also cause color blindness.

Are there solutions to improve color blindness?

Unfortunately, there is no cure for color blindness...

There are only a few comfort solutions that can help some types of color blindness by enhancing certain colors, such as EnChroma* glasses for example.

But how can it be detected?

Visit your optometrist or ophthalmologist! They can perform one of the different color vision tests, such as the Ishihara test, the Beyne Lantern test, the Farnsworth test, or the Nagel anomaloscope.

Vision is a precious sense that should not be overlooked! It is important to take care of your eyes by having regular eye tests and eating foods that are good for your eyesight.