Ronita Baras from Family Matters put together a nice list of things what parents can do if it really is the case. Have a look at the whole list in her article: Is My Kid Color Blind? — I would like to pick a few items of the whole list which I think are very important and eventually add some more.

Tips for Parents of Colorblind Children

• Make sure all people working with your child know he or she cannot tell the difference between some colors, but do not make a big deal out of it.
• Ask the teachers to avoid using color coding in exercises, test sheets and marking.
• Some standard tests are color coded, so ask your child’s teacher to help your child with it.
• Don’t try to learn colors with your kid (it won’t work!) but instead learn to understand how he or she sees the world.
• About 8% of all people are colorblind. You might want to try to find a colorblind friend, so they can share their impressions and tricks.
• Don’t be astonished about a bad color taste in the selection of clothes. Just help your child in choosing matching pieces.
• Every colorblind person starts to develop some strategies to overcome the handicap. Learn them.

But the most important fact for parents of colorblind kids is: Don’t panic!

The colorblind population is quite big which means your child is definitely not alone. And in most cases color blindness doesn’t really affect their life at all. There are even completely colorblind professors—so be assured that color blindness is not really a handicap on the personal development of your child.

By the way, Ronita writes also about How to Teach Kids Colors which I think is quite useless. A child will learn the concept of colors just through everyday life. Only parents think that the naming of colors is such an important thing which should be learned much earlier. Give your children some time and they will learn it.

Photo taken by James A. Stepp

If it is not only a weak form of color blindness, the parents will often recognize it between the age of 3 and 10 years. After the diagnosis mothers and fathers are looking for information to help their children. But what about the young boys and girls themselves? Can they understand such an abstract thing as color blindness, what do they think about it and how colorful is their life?

I put together a questionnaire of seven simple questions and had the chance to get them answered by two young boys. Let’s call them Six and Eleven, according to their age.

Simple questionnaire for colorblind children

What are your favorite colors?
Six: Black…. (pause)… and red.
Eleven: Red and black.

Do you like to paint colorful pictures?
Six: No!, well I guess I would. (Interviewer comment: I think his initial answer was because he doesn’t really do much art.)
Eleven: No way!

What do you see if you look at the childrens testing poster?
Six: (Interviewer: He didn’t really see anything.)
Eleven: Nothing.

What does “color blindness” mean to you?
Six: It means people’s colours are different colours.
Eleven: That someone that is colour blind sees colours all messed up.

Can you see rainbows?
Six: Yes.
Eleven: Yes.

What colors have the following animals: elephant, tiger, fox, flamingo, bee, frog, and parrot?
Six: Grey; black & orange; brown, maybe?; pink & black; yellow & black; green; all colours.
Eleven: Grey; black, white & orange; red & white; pink; yellow & black; green; rainbow.

Which colors can you seen on this picture of a clown?
Six: (Interviewer: He pointed at colours and correctly named them – but he had some troubles in the transition yellow, green, blue area.)
Eleven: Umm… Lots.

This are great answers aren’t they? I like it how the two boys find some simple and obvious explanations for color blindness. And even if they really have some problems with colors their life is still very colorful. I hope this are some happy news if you are one of those moms or dads who just found out about the color vision deficiency of your child.

Thanks to Tanya, a mother of two colorblind boys, for going through the questionnaire with Six and Eleven.

Photo taken by Tim Pierce.

Last December Nick offered 50 free shirts with an imprinted Ishihara like unicorn image. They were all given away to colorblind children for free.

He was so kind to send me also two of them for my two little toddlers. As you can see, the shirt is still a little bit to large for my boy.

I showed the shirt to my son and asked him: “What do you see?” His answer was of course: “A horse.” What else dad?

If I look at the image I can see only trees—and a lot of dots. Thanks Nick.

Greetings,

My name is Nicholas and I am a grad student at the School of Visual Arts MFA design program in New York City. I have created a color blind pattern for t-shirts that I hope to distribute to young children. The shirts are free for children who have recently found out or have known for some time that they are colorblind. In my own experience I have found that those with no deficiency in color vision often misconceive color blindness as a warped perception of reality. Such is not the case.

So, I have made these shirts to celebrate color blindness and the magical world that the color blind see. In this example, an image of a forest is clear to all, however the unicorn within the forest is only visible to those with normal vision. Actually seeing a unicorn is of course much sillier than being color blind. That which the colorblind see in this world may be more spectacular then one could ever imagine.

This is a one time extreme limited run of 50 shirts with a six color screen print. Sizes run youth medium – adult large. Please specify for whom the shirt is and what size. Once the 50 are gone, I will never print them again.

Also, if you could send a photograph (any quality and doesn’t even need a face) of someone wearing the shirt once received it would be much appreciated.

Total color blindness—also known as complete color blindness or monochromacy and with the scientific name achromatopsia—is very uncommon. Less than one out of 30’000 people is affected by this special form of color vision deficiency.

What if your son or daughter suffers from complete color blindness, how might a possible future look like to your child?

I just came to know my sister’s son is total colorblind. He is 12 years old.

1. Since he is total colorblind, does it mean he sees all color in monochrome gray shades or can he see some of the colors?
2. What kind of profession should he pursue since he is total colorblind?
3. Is it fine for him to get work as a software engineer or a doctor?
4. Is it fine for him to drive when he grows up?

Before answering the above four questions I would like to say a few words about complete color blindness. A young baby suffering from monochromacy will start to twinkle in bright light. Why? Because all cones which are needed for color vision and day vision are absent and therefor vision is solely based on rods. This receptors can’t see colors and are responsible for night vision. This means they are very sensitive to bright light which additionally leads to very poor visual acuity.

This means, if your child really suffers from complete color blindness he or she…

• …needs strong sunglasses in normal daylight.
• …has poor visual acuity.
• …also suffers from nystagmus (nervous eyes).

1. Does he see all color in monochrome gray shades or can he see some of the colors? If you are suffering from achromatopsia you can’t perceive any colors beside black, white and fine tuned shades of gray. There is no feeling or sensation of color at all.

2. What kind of profession should he pursue since he is total colorblind? Unfortunately complete color blindness can be a huge handicap in many professions. But there are many people who showed that also a huge variety of jobs can be done with this deficiency, like Dr. Nordby an internationally recognized vision scientist, lecturer, and writer. You can find more personal job stories in the book Living with Achromatopsia.

3. Is it fine for him to get work as a software engineer or a doctor? To work as a software engineer should cause no insurmountable hurdles. Of course you might need an extra large display and adjust some color settings. But programming is a logical and not a color related job. To work as a doctor could be tougher. A doctor needs good eyesight during his work and also needs to make decisions based on colors. There might be some work which can be done as a complete colorblind person, but it won’t be easy at all.

4. Is it fine for him to drive when he grows up? Unfortunately I have to tell you that you can’t drive when you are suffering from achromatopsia. The handicaps I described above are just to big to be able to safely drive a car.

Please make sure that you also visit the very comprehensive site from the Achromatopsia network. They are also offering two books as pdf download with a lot of specific information on this very special type of complete color blindness: Understanding and Coping with Achromatopsia and Living with Achromatopsia.