When you have a full range of colour vision you may often not appreciate how not seeing colour can limit your work opportunities.
We recently had a client purchase a pair of iRo lens glasses as he is a photographer. This passion came to him later in life, but he realised that he was not seeing the full beauty of sunsets and beaches to expand his abilities as a photographer.
He also said that his father had a family business passed on from his father as a gem stone dealer. It was expected that he would work in this business too. Sadly his inability to see colour and differentiate between the gemstones, saw his future in the family business diminish.
Other careers paths are also limiting for people with colour vision deficiencies. Like hairdressing – a hairdresser would struggle with colouring hair. A florist or gardener would have difficulties matching colours of flowers or viewing foliage growth.
Doctors may have trouble in some areas of medicine, especially with a red/green deficiency. It may make it hard to find veins and blood flow.
We have spoken before about sports, as team jumpers, colour of balls, the colour of the field are not conducive to colour vision deficiencies.
Electricians deal with installing wiring systems or repairing in houses, factories and businesses. This job involves one to be able to distinguish the colours and coding in order to do their job correctly and safely as fires, electrical shocks and power outages would likely occur if done improperly.
For Police, seeing colour is more important than you think. Imagine a crime was committed and the witness states the perpetrator was wearing a red shirt and fled in a blue car – how would the police person track them down?
Graphic designers have trouble with designs as this type of job relies heavily on colour.
Chefs have trouble knowing what is cooked and what isn’t. For a chef who is colourblind recognising when the meat is cooked or raw will be difficult. Though it may vary depending on the severity of the colour vison.
Being a painter or a professional decorator is pretty obvious – how can you mix colours or paint a house for a client when you have difficulty seeing the true colour? One of our team, had their bathroom renovated and noticed that a whole wall of white tiles weren’t matching the other wall. The tiler couldn’t tell the difference and a third party was called to clarify it. She then thought that perhaps the tiler was colour blind? He tried out an iRo Lens testing kit and realised he was mildly colourblind, and he never knew. But all of a sudden things in his life made sense.
Having a colour vision deficit can hinder some job opportunities, but despite this, there are plenty of jobs that you can do.
Our iRo Lenses can help, they can even be made to suit your prescription too. If you want to see how they work, try our testing kits first. They are made from iRo Lenses – they also make a great gift for someone you know who has a colour vision deficit.