What Does Being Colorblind Mean?

Colour blindness has nothing to do with being blind. It is a state of the eye which develops an inability to distinguish certain colours in life. Contrary to what normal people see in the rainbow, people with colour blindness can only see less amount of colour and not everything looks bright to them. You mostly develop colour blindness from inheritance or at times of birth. It is not a widespread phenomenon and affects fewer people in the world. Every 1 out of 12 males and 1 out of 20 women develop colour blindness. Hence it is quite common in men than in women. In the UK tested, approx 3 million people are colour blind that makes 4.5% of the complete population where men are the most affected.

In simple words, being colourblind leads to a shortage of colours and vibrancy in your life. You don’t see major colours light green, yellow or red and instead you see the brown shade. Curious about this unique eye condition, read on to find out its types, causes, and symptoms.

What colourblind people see?

There’s no change in the visual acuity of colourblind people, they can see every object with great sharpness and clarity. However, they are unable to see colours like red, green or blue at all. These colours are not similar or even visible to a colourblind eye, different colours appear instead of red, blue or green. There are also cases when people are completely unable to see any colour at all.

However, it has the least amount of occurrence. The common type of color blindness is the red/green ones where most people can distinguish or see these colours. In red/green blindness, people don't necessarily mix these colours but it has many dynamics attached to it. Since colours are made by blending the primary colours, people with colour blindness can only see the other colour, not red, green or blue. For example, people with red/green colour blindness will be confused between the colour blue or purple because they can’t see the red element in their mix.

This problem will arise with every colour that’s been mixed with red or green. For most people black is also perceived as somewhat dark blue or green. Just like any other eye condition, colour blindness can be mild, moderate or severe. People with mild colour blindness that is 40% of the population aren’t even aware most of their time. While people with severe colour blindness that is 65% can see the symptoms and effect at quite an early age.

How does a normal eye work?

Our normal vision contains all sorts of natural colour. Our vision contains specialized cells located back in the eye at our retina. They are located in the rods and cone, the rods and cones are responsible for visual acuity and colour contrast. People with perfect vision, the eyes absorb three different wavelengths of the eye through the cones such as short (blue), medium(green) and long (red). The three wavelengths combine to give us all the natural colour. All these cones and rods work together with these three wavelengths to lend you the colour vision.

What are the different colourblind causes?

Colour blindness develops mostly through genetics or at birth. The red/green and blue colour blindness is mostly developed through inheritance. These characteristics are carried on by the X chromosome that’s why men suffer more than women.

What are the different colour-blindness types?

Colour blindness is present in different forms, you can not experience a single type of problem in distinguishing as there are various others. Here are the different colour-blindness types:

Red-green Colourblindness

It happens when the red cones in the eye have reduced sensitivity to the red light that is also known as protanomaly or if the green cones have reduced sensitivity towards green light also known as deuteranomaly. These reduce colour sensitivity and cause an image formation of dull, brownish-yellow colour landscapes.

Blue-Yellow Color Blindness

Blue-Yellow Color Blindness is a rare form of colour blindness that is also known as tritanopia. It happens when the blue cones in our eyes aren’t working. People with this eye condition have extreme trouble in distinguishing colours like yellow, violet, blue or green. The landscape with tritanopia appears generally pink, red, black, white or grey.

Monochromacy (Rare)

Monochromacy is a rare kind of colour blindness where none of the three cones works or there’s a complication in the visual cortex processing of images. If you develop monochromacy, you fail to see any colour at all. The image for you would appear like an old black and white television set.

Is Color Blindness treatable?

Colour Blindness treatment differs based on their types and forms. If you are affected with dichromatic colour blindness then it can’t be possible to be treated as in this condition, you miss all these three types of cone. However, if you are affected by analogous trichromat, you have a chance for treatment. As in this condition, you still have all the cones but some of them don’t respond to the wavelength. It can be treated with glasses and lenses.