What are Colour Blindness Glasses?

Colour blind glasses are glasses with specialised lenses that help individuals with colour blindness see colours more clearly. Also known as colour vision deficiency, colour blindness is the eyes’ inability to distinguish between certain colours. The condition is primarily genetic and occurs when light-sensitive cells in the retina (the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye) fail to function properly.

The cells in the retina responsible for colour vision are known as cones. They are designed to process three primary colours – red, green and blue. When cone cells lack an adequate amount of chemicals to interpret colours as they are, it leads to colour vision deficiency. Those with this condition struggle to see the colours the way most people do. According to the Colour Blind Awareness Org., there are approximately 3 million colour-blind people in the UK and most of them are males.

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Types of colour blindness

There are three main types of colour blindness.

Red-green colour deficiency

This is the most common type of colour blindness, wherein those with this condition are unable to differentiate between different shades of red and green. Red-green colour blindness can be further categorised into two types:

Protanopia

Those with protanopia have a deficiency of long wavelength cones, meaning they have reduced sensitivity to red light and are likely to confuse black with many shades of red. They also face difficulty in differentiating dark brown, dark green, dark orange, dark blue, dark red and so on.

Deuteranopia

Those with deuteranopia have a deficiency of medium wavelength cones, meaning they have reduced sensitivity to green light and are likely to confuse mid-reds with mid-greens, bright greens with yellows, mid-reds with mid-browns, blue-greens with grey, light blue with lilac and so on.

Blue-yellow colour deficiency

Also known as tritanopia, blue-yellow colour deficiency is a rare type of colour blindness. Those with this condition have a deficiency of short wavelength cones, meaning they have reduced sensitivity to blue light and face difficulty in telling apart blue and yellow, blue and green and violet and red. They mostly view the world in shades of red, black, pink, white, turquoise and grey.  

Total colour deficiency

Also referred to as achromatopsia, total colour deficiency is the rarest type of colour blindness. Those with this condition completely lack any colour vision, as none of their cone cells function normally. Everything they see appears to be in shades of grey, white and black. It’s almost as if they are viewing the world through an old black-and-white television. This extremely rare condition occurs in 1 in 33,000 people. Additionally, individuals with this type of colour blindness are extremely sensitive to light and suffer from bad eyesight.

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Treatment for colour blindness

Although there’s no permanent cure for inherited colour blindness at present, colour blind glasses are available to help individuals see colours better by enhancing contrast between some colours. These glasses are only effective for those with red-green colour deficiency and can help certain colours appear more noticeable than others. Some of the popular brands that make colour vision deficiency glasses are EnChroma, Pilestone, VINO Optics and ColorCorrection System. These glasses are available only at an authorised optician and should not be worn without consulting a specialist.