These photos show you the world through the eyes of someone who's colour blind

August 29, 2015  21:30

These remarkable images show life through the eyes of someone who is colour blind.

They show how people with the condition may struggle to tell if meat is cooked or select a red crayon from a pile.  

An expert who has been researching colour vision for 30 years has released a series of tests which show how deuteranopia, the type of colour blindness that affects red and green, can inhibit everyday tasks. 

The images, released by Dr Jay Neitz, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Washington in Seattle, show people with normal vision what everyday life is like when your vision is slightly murky.

Colour blindness affects 300 million people worldwide, and occurs due to an abnormality of the retina, the layer of cells at the back of the eye that are sensitive to light. 

For people with normal vision, the brain compares the signals from all three cones enabling a person to see the colour of an object. This is called 'trichromacy'.

But for people who are colour blind, one or more cones will be missing or won't function normally, which means they will be unable to see the full spectrum of colours. This is called 'dichromacy'.

Writing on his website, Dr Neitz explains that the easiest way to think about how colour vision works, is to think of a television set.

He said: ‘Your TV works by mixing three different lights (red, green, and blue) to produce all the colours that you recognise.

‘Colour vision works by using three different receptors (call them red, green, and blue) to deliver information to your brain where all the information is "mixed" and the different colours are recognised by you.’

‘What if your TV could no longer produce red or green light? This is similar to what happens when someone is called "colour blind”?

He wants companies to understand that people with colour blindness cannot see the full spectrum of colours, and so might struggle to read some presentations or leaflets, depending on the font and background colour. 

Figures from Colour Blindness Awareness suggest that approximately 40 per cent of colour blind pupils leaving secondary school are unaware they are colour blind, while 60 per cent of sufferers experience many problems in everyday life.

In most cases, colour blindness is inherited, but it can also develop as the result of a pre-existing health condition, or as a side effect of certain medicines. 

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