Could You Be Colour Blind?
Do you have difficulty telling if colours are blue and yellow, or red and green? Do other people sometimes inform you that the colour you think you are seeing is wrong?
If so, these are primary signs that you have a colour vision deficiency.
Colour Blindness, despite its name, is not a form of blindness at all, rather it is a deficiency in the way a person perceives colour. It effects approximately 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women.
If you are colour blind you will have difficulty distinguishing certain colours which contain red and green or, more rarely, blue and yellow components – you will not however see the world in only grey!
There are different causes of colour blindness. The most common being due to inheriting the x-linked recessive gene from the mother. Some people become colour blind throughout life as a result of diseases such as diabetes and multiple sclerosis or they acquire the condition over time due to the aging process, medication etc.
The effects of colour vision deficiency can be mild, moderate or severe so approximately 40% of colour blind pupils currently leaving secondary school are unaware that they are colour blind.
Being colour blind can rule people out of certain career paths, for example aviation, certain types of engineering, electrical work etc. Because of this it is a good idea to have all children tested at a young age to rule out disappointment down the line. It is also helpful for teachers to know if a child is colour blind as a lot of education tools are colour coded, especially in early years.
If you think you or your child might have a colour deficiency come and see us at Gill Opticians and we can definitively test this and discuss the results.
