The aim of the website www.colourmed.com is primarily practical. It is to give information on the practice of medicine for those with colour vision deficiency. There is a sizeable body of evidence that this deficiency is a problem in medicine:

• Medical practitioners report difficulty seeing the redness of inflammation and fresh blood in body products.
• They have difficulty recognising pallor and the body colour changes of jaundice and cyanosis.
• The colour stains in histological preparations can be a problem as can the colour codes used in charts and instrument displays.

There is the risk of medical error with adverse consequences for patients. Moreover, medical practitioners may be anxious about the risk of error and have diminished confidence in their diagnostic ability.

Colored Pills – a problem for colorblind doctors and patients.

In a survey of colour vision deficient medical practitioners some made remarks such as “You do not necessarily know when you have a problem – others point them out” and “The problem is I do not know what I am missing” and “I feel I am very vulnerable … there are times when patients describe red rashes and I cannot see them and nurses point out the invisible dots.” There are large numbers involved because it has been shown that the prevalence of colour vision deficiency is the same in the medical profession as in the population at large.

The situation in the medical profession is complex without any immediate solution to all the problems it presents. Among these problems are

• the varying degrees of severity of the deficiency,
• the different demands on colour vision made by the different specialties,
• and changing technologies in medicine.

In addition there are at present few with adequate training to give the needed advice. It may well be that optometrists if they are made aware of the medical aspects will be the best group to advise individuals towards their career choice. This will be appreciated by medical students: in a survey of 155 color vision deficient medical students by Burke a common refrain was that they did not get advice and support to help them deal with their problem with colour. Seventy-four per cent of Burke’s sample said that it would be useful in their future career to have a full colour vision assessment so that they knew the type and severity of their defect.

The issues involved are sensitive because the safety and care of patients is involved and also the careers of medical students and qualified doctors. It is not surprising that those responsible for standards in medicine have been reluctant to make definitive statements on this issue. We do not advocate the introduction of a colour vision requirement for entry to medical courses.

We take the view that all medical students who have abnormal colour vision should be aware of their deficiency before entering a medical course, and of its severity, have an appreciation of the kind of problems it may cause in their chosen career, and avoid those careers that may cause unavoidable problems. They will then be readier to seek advice and better equipped to find ways to avoid their problems.

One man in 20 is color-blind in greater or lesser degree and for that reason ineligible for training as an Army Air Corps pilot or observer. Last week the Air Corps’s School of Flight Medicine reported an interesting incident.

In a plane at Fort Sill, Okla. early this summer, an Air Corps observer was able to spot only ten of 40 camouflaged artillery fieldpieces on the ground. An observer of the Field Artillery in a plane spotted all 40 and accurately plotted their positions on his map. The explanation: the artilleryman, selected under less rigorous examination than the Air Corps man, was colorblind. Camouflage, designed to deceive the normal eye, fooled him not a whit.

Last week, at the School of Flight Medicine, clerks combed the files preparing a list of candidates rejected for color blindness. But the Air Corps still wants no color-blind pilots. A pilot must be able to distinguish between colors in Very signals, field lights, etc., where a mistake would be costly.

Found at National Defense: Color-Blind Observers.
Thanks to Vasile from Discromat for sending me the link.

During the winter some further steps were taken to work towards this treatment. You can read more about this at Genetic Screenings for Color Blindness. And now there is a survey going on focusing again on this topic:

Color Blindness Survey – 20 minutes, $25 Honorarium

AlphaDetail, a healthcare marketing research company, is conducting an online survey with color blind individuals. Are you a color blind male who resides in the US and is interested in taking a survey to provide your opinions on potential color blind treatments?

If so, we would like to invite you, to take a 20 minute online survey. Please click on the following link if you are interested in participating and we will send you a unique survey URL within 48 hours: Color Blindness Survey. Please be advised that you will need to answer a few preliminary screening questions in order to determine your eligibility before participating in the survey. Upon your completion of the survey, you will receive an honorarium payment in the mail 2 to 4 weeks from the date of completion.

We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,

AlphaDetail Member Services
AlphaDetail, Inc.
777 Mariners Island Blvd. Suite 700
San Mateo, CA 94404

It would be great if you could join this survey, as it might help all colorblind people to get a possible treatment of this disease in the near future. And please don’t forget to choose Colblindor as your referrer.

The short answer to this questions is simply: No. And the long answer: There is no cure for color blindness—yet. There are some scientific studies going on which had just recently quite a big breakthrough. This and some other interesting ideas about aids for colorblind people are the topic of this article of the Color Blind Essentials series.

First ideas

As with many other handicaps or diseases when some people learned that some others can’t really distinguish colors like themselves, laziness was the first thing which came to their mind. Because of that many colorblind people just started to learn color names more intensively—without any success.

There were also some other techniques like warming one eye, electrical stimulation, injections of iodine or extracts of cobra venom, vitamins or flashing light. All this finally resulted in an official statement of different Academies and Medical Associations that no method had been found for the correction of color blindness, whether called ‘color weakness’, ‘color confusion’ or ‘color defectiveness’—which is still true as of today.

But there were also some good ideas around like color filters or spectacles with horizontally divided red and green sections.

Aids for colorblind people

If you have a closer look at the available tools for color deficient people, you have on one side the computer and all its possibilities and on the other side non-computer based aids.

On the non-computer side there is actually just one technique used: colored filters. These filters come in different forms:

• Lenses: Manufacturers of tinted lenses claim that their product can improve color vision for colorblind users. And people often read this as if they could almost cure your color blindness—which is wrong. Here are some facts about tinted lenses:
  • They have to be worn in only one eye, as otherwise fewer colors are seen.
  • It needs some time to get used to them and learn some new colors.
  • They can help you and enhance your color perception in certain situations.
  • You want be able to see more colors, but maybe other ones then you are used to.
  • Certain colors seem to vibrate or shimmer because of the usage in only one eye.
  • Worn while you are driving they can be a safety risk because of the worse perception at dim light situations.
• Glasses: It is almost the same for colored glasses as for lenses. The first products looked a bit strange as only one glass is tinted. Recent products have some coating which reduces this effect and makes glasses a true alternative for the lenses.
   
• Tools: There is a little tool called Seekey which is made of two tinted filters, one in green and the other in red. If you look through the filters on and off you can definitely distinguish more colors as a colorblind. This can be an advantage for some specific tasks in certain professions or in some everyday life situations. Such filters can also enhance certain diagnostic or medical instruments and help the colorblind operators to see what they otherwise wouldn’t spot that easy.

Many colored filters can help you to pass some color blindness tests, specially the famous Ishihara plates test. But this is not the correct purpose as those tests are usually there to assure, that your color vision isn’t a safety issue. Because of that in most cases tinted filters are not allowed to be used on such qualifying tests.

If we have a look at the computer based helpers for colorblind users, there are different tools available. Those tools make use of different techniques which can only be done digitally.

• Show the name of a color if you point to it.
• Shift the whole color spectrum around the color wheel.
• Highlight certain specific colors in a different color.
• Use a pattern to highlight certain tints.
• Some sophisticated algorithms which try to manipulate a picture to the effect that colorblind people perceive it still as normal but that certain shades can be distinguished better.

Such tools might really help you in some specific situations. But often they are not that easy to adapt for your personal purposes and sometimes just to cumbersome to handle. And don’t forget that all those tools can only be used while working on a computer, which is in everyday life often not such a big handicap for colorblind people.

Cure of color vision deficiency

As mentioned in the lead of this article there is to this day no cure for colorblind people available—but it looks like as if there is one for colorblind monkeys!

Monkey Performing Color Blindness Test

Jay Neitz, a well known vision scientist, and his team developed a gene therapy to enhance color vision. Colorblind monkeys were used as test animals. They received the gene injections directly into their eyes to build up the missing color receptor.

The monkeys had to perform a color blindness test and if they did well they received a reward. After a while they started to perform much better on a task they couldn’t accomplish before because of their vision handicap.

Due to this test result many colorblind people hope to be able to get rid of their color vision deficiency in the near future. Unfortunately this won’t come true that fast. And there are some difficulties which have to be overcome until this dream could get true:

• Gene therapy for red-green color blindness may not work for humans as well as it does for monkeys.
• Side effects of subretinal injections can include irritation or infection, in addition to the risks of permanent retinal detachment and blindness at the injection site.
• There could be adverse psychological effects associated with suddenly being able to see new colors and learning how to categorize them.

Also other institutions started to pick up this topic and are looking into the development of such a gene therapy to heal congenital color vision deficiency.

There is a possibility that a color vision handicap can disappear again. In some cases of acquired color blindness, specially for vision deficiencies which can occur after a hard hit on your head, it is reported that this handicap can disappear again after a certain time. Unfortunately this can’t be influenced and the process of healing can’t be used for all other colorblind people.

This was the last part of the Color Blind Essentials series. If you would like to learn more details about color vision deficiency why don’t you browse my articles archive, try some of the color blindness tests or check out my tools including a color blindness simulator.

I this article of the Color Blind Essentials series I would like to have a closer look at the every day life of a colorblind person and also at the impacts this vision handicap can have on your career choice.

Color blindness in everyday life

Most people think traffic lights are one of the biggest issue for everyone suffering from a color vision deficiency, but they are wrong. The colors for traffic lights are very well chosen and they are always arranged in a certain order. So this is not a problem at all for most colorblind people even if some states don’t allow you to get a drivers license if you are colorblind.

Original and its color blind simulation.

But there are some real handicaps for people who are suffering from some moderate to strong color vision deficiency:

• A Sunburn can’t really be seen, only if the skin is almost glowing.
• If meat is cooked can’t be told by its color.
• There is no difference between the colors for vacant (green) and occupied (red).
• Flowers and fruits can’t be that easily spotted sometimes.
• And you can’t tell if a fruit or vegetable is ripe or not yet.
• Every electrical device which uses LED lights to indicate something is a permanent source of annoyance.
• Colored maps and graphics can sometimes be very hard to decipher.

By far the most biggest issue is matching colors and specially matching clothes.

If you a have a color vision defect you can’t just choose flowers which fit together nicely, or a painting which fits with the furniture, or a carpet. You also can’t create a web site or an image with nicely matching colors. And you will never be able to easily match your shirt with your tie, your trousers with your shoes, your whole wardrobe.

In this case you need a pair of color enabled eyes which help you out. I often borrow the eyes of my wife and sometimes those of my son. They really help me a lot. ;-)

Choosing your career as a colorblind

A color vision deficiency often gets more attention when it comes to choosing a future career. Specially parents are very concerned about possible restrictions. But also young people ask themselves, if the job of their dreams will stay just a dream because of their vision handicap.

Jobs which require good color vision can be split into two different categories. In the first of them color matching or color recognition is a main component of the job. This for example includes color quality control, art teaching, interior decorating and more.

This group of jobs is easy to decide about for colorblind people as each one knows best himself if he will perform well in such a profession or not. Most colorblind people can also accept this fact more or less easily.

The other category includes jobs which also require good color vision but only in support of the job itself. This group includes the job profiles of pilots, firefighters, police officers and more. These kind of jobs have the following facts in common:

• Bad color vision is a security problem in this job.
• Passing a color blindness test is required to qualify for the job.
• The impact of a color vision deficiency is not well described.
• There is no international standard on color vision requirements.

The points listed above unfortunately make it very complicated. Many colorblind people believe that they still could perform in such a position perfectly and that turning them down just because of their color vision deficiency is not correct. Some people even start thinking about how to cheat on such a test just to get through the exams and get the job of their dreams. But this is not the right way to go.

Here is my six steps plan towards your future career:

(1) Learn. During your time at school learn how you can handle colors. Learn about the severity of your color blindness and learn your special techniques to get around your handicap. This way you are very well prepared when it comes to choosing your future career.

(2) Inform. Get all possible information about the job of your dreams and possible handicaps for color blind people. You can get information from a prospective employer, from special authorities like the FAA for pilot candidates and of course from the internet. It’s important to check your local requirements as they can vary between different countries.

(3) Talk. Try to find some people who are working in this job and talk to them. They will know the best if there are special tasks which might be a problem and you will know from your personal experiences, if you will be able to handle and also most important if you will feel comfortable in such a position. First check your relatives, ask around in your neighborhood, maybe you will find somebody at the college and otherwise I’m sure you will be able to find somebody online who will be happy to help you out. Just check forums where those people could hang around.

(4) Communicate. Don not try to hide your color vision deficiency. Be honest and communicate it if it might be a problem. Of course you only have to do this if color vision could be a possible handicap. But it is important to inform your prospective employer what you learned about the job to be done and how you overcome those handicaps despite your imperfect color vision.

(5) Go for it. Don’t forget to take the last step. Do the required tests to learn more about your color blindness. You might pass without any problem and you might fail. You maybe also like to try different employers as there are in most jobs no national rules concerning color vision deficiency.

(6) Discuss. Did you fail the color blindness test and did they use the Ishihara plates or some similar form? Read the chapter about color blindness tests to learn about other possible tests. This should help you to start a discussion about the used test and if maybe this test was just to restrictive. There are many different tests available and sometimes it would be even much better if your prospective employer would just check possible job restrictions and if you can handle those or not.

And please don’t forget the fact, many people have some form of handicap which is a burden and sometimes becomes a big obstacle. Get used to your color blindness and try to accept that moderate to strong color blind people shouldn’t dream to work for example as a pilot or a professional firefighter. If you can’t accept this, don’t try to cheat on the tests but start a discussion about it!

    

Left: normal red apples — Right: colorblind red apples

We are colorblind. We can’t name colors. But we can handle most situations perfectly even if we don’t know which color it is.

In the next and last article of the Color Blind Essentials series we will learn if there are any possibilities to cure color blindness.

Photos taken by clairity and Muffet.