Genetics can play a factor in childhood vision problems, sometimes up to 60%. That is why we at Colour Vision Optical as specialised in optometry. One of the most important things we do before checking your eyes is to conduct a thorough interview to determine the family history before making a diagnosis and predicting any future issues.

It is estimated that approximately half a million Australians have a colour vision deficit, which is usually hereditary. It is all to do with chromosomes.

The anomaly is carried by the X chromosomes, which explains why there are more males than females who are colour blind. If the mother is the carrier of the gene, the son will have a 50% chance of inheriting it. This is where it gets confusing –

If a woman has only one colour-blind ‘gene’ she is known as a ‘carrier’ but she won’t be colour blind. When she has a child she will give one of her X chromosomes to the child. If she gives the X chromosome with the faulty ‘gene’ to her son he will be colour blind, but if he receives the ‘good’ chromosome he won’t be colour blind.

A colour blind boy can’t receive a colour blind ‘gene’ from his father, even if his father is colour blind because his father can only pass an X chromosome to his daughters.

A colour blind daughter, therefore, must have a father who is colour blind and a mother who is a carrier (who has also passed the faulty ‘gene’ to her daughter). If her father is not colour blind, a ‘carrier’ daughter won’t be colour blind. A daughter can become a carrier in one of two ways – she can acquire the ‘gene’ from a carrier mother or from a colour blind father.

This is why red/green colour blindness is far more common in men than women.

Make sense?

The effects of colour vision deficiency can be mild, moderate or severe depending upon the defect. If you have inherited colour blindness your condition will stay the same throughout your life – it won’t get any better or worse.

The retina of the eye has two types of light-sensitive cells called rods and cones. Both are found in the retina which is the layer at the back of your eye which processes images. Rods work in low light conditions to help night vision, but cones work in daylight and are responsible for colour discrimination.

The exact physical causes of colour blindness are still being researched but it is believed that colour blindness is usually caused by faulty cones but sometimes by a fault in the pathway from the cone to the brain.

People with normal colour vision have all three types of cone/pathway working correctly but colour blindness occurs when one or more of the cone types are faulty. For example, if the red cone is faulty you won’t be able to see colours containing red clearly. Most people with colour blindness can’t distinguish certain shades of red and green.

That is why our iRo Lenses can help individuals see the world in more accurate hues.

The iRo lens ‘home testing’ kit will enable you to determine which lens is best suited for you so you can enjoy new more vibrant colours for the very first time. This process is straightforward and comes with a step by step guide to assist you in selecting the most appropriate iRo lens for you.

These filters in the home testing kit show you exactly how you will see your new more vibrant colours with your iRo lenses. You can take them outside, look around and see your amazing new world of colours and see the world in all its beauty. So even if you don’t decide to purchase the iRo lenses these filters will at least show you how vibrant all the colours actually appear.

The next step is to purchase a testing kit click here, and if you enter in this code on check out you can receive the kit for half price – COLOUR

We will mail them out to you straight away and there is even an instruction video on our YouTube Channel on how to use the kit Click here to view

Once you have seen how amazing the iRo lenses will be for you then you may wish to purchase our iRo frames and lenses and this can be done over the phone or online.

*plus postage