Colour blindness or colour vision deficiency is an often misunderstood condition.

Most people think it’s called “colour blind”, which means a person can only see black and white. While in reality, most people with colour blindness do see colour. That is why we prefer to use the term colour vision deficiency – which makes more sense.

People with colour vision deficiency see a narrower range of colour. It is believed that most people with normal colour vision can see up to 1 million colour shades, but a person who has a colour vision deficiency sees as few as just 10 thousand colours, which is approx. —1% of the normal range.

These images give an example of colour vision deficits which help people with 100% colour vision understand what it is like for people who can’t see the full range of colour. These are just examples as you genuinely don’t know unless you see them as they do.

So, what are the actual effects of colour vision deficits on vision? The main issue is colour confusion, where colours are mistaken for another, like thinking peanut butter is green.

If you think about colours, the primary colours are red, yellow and blue, and other colours are all a combination of these. For example, purple consists of blue combined with red, orange is a blend of red and yellow, pink is a mix of white and red, etc. Some people with a colour vision deficit may have trouble seeing red– so imagine what purple would look like if you couldn’t see the red part? Or grass without green? We have three types of cones in our eyes: blue, green, and red. That is why colour vision deficits are often called “red-green colour blind” or “green deficient” or “red deficient”.

Colour confusion can affect people daily, starting with getting dressed in the morning, with a mismatched outfit, calling things by the wrong colour and having trouble interpreting colour coded information such as charts, graphs and maps, which could be thought of as a learning disorder in school.

Fortunately, iRo lenses can help people see colours. The joy and gasps from people when they see the fantastic colours of the world when they try them on makes it all worthwhile. We have testing kits available, which are made up of actual iRo lenses to try the lenses before you purchase the glasses. These testing kits are great gift ideas for any occasion in the comfort of your own home. Click here for more information