- Types of color blindness
- How to live with color blindness
- Color blind glasses
- ADD system to identify colors
Color blindness, also known as dyschromatopsia, is a change in vision, in which the individual is unable to differentiate all or some colors, especially green from red.
Generally, the transmission of color blindness is genetic, but it can also occur due to lesions in the structures of the eyes or neurons responsible for vision and is very rare in women and frequent in men, because it is associated with the X chromosome.
Color blindness has no cure, however, the patient's lifestyle can be adapted to have a life close to normal and without difficulties. Its diagnosis can be made through tests that can be performed at home, at school, at an optician or at an ophthalmologist. Also read: How to take the test to confirm color blindness.
Types of color blindness
Color blindness is a visual impairment and there are three types of color blindness, which include:
- Achromatic color blindness: also known as monochromatic, it is the rarest type, where the person sees in black, white and gray, not seeing other colors; Dichromatic color blindness: the person does not have a color receiver and, therefore, is unable to identify one of the following colors red, green or blue;
Trichomatic color blindness: it is the most common type, where the person has a slight difficulty in distinguishing colors since the person has all the color receptors but they do not work well. The colors that are usually affected are red, green and blue with their different shades.
The types of color blindness are classified according to the difficulty in seeing a certain set of colors, and should always be diagnosed by the ophthalmologist.
There is also a type of disease that causes difficulty to observe any type of color, called achromatopsia. Find out more about the symptoms of this problem and the difference in color blindness.
How to live with color blindness
Colorblind people may find it more difficult to decide which color of clothing to buy or work with electricity, for example, however there are some strategies that can help a person live better, such as the ones below.
Color blind glasses
A good way to live with color blindness is to buy special glasses for color blindness, which adjusts the colors so that the color blind see the colors as they really are.
These glasses can be purchased over the internet, they are manufactured by the company EnChroma, it looks like a sunglasses and costs around 400 dollars.
There are 2 types of lenses, one of which is indicated for people who cannot see the red colors, which is the Cx-PT model, and the other for those who cannot see green, which is the Cx-D model. However, a glass that can be indicated for those who do not identify all colors has not yet been created.
The manufacturer's website has a free trial to find out which lens is right for each person.
ADD system to identify colors
Learning the color identification system called ADD is the best way to live with color blindness. This system catalogs each color with a symbol, helping the color blind to 'see' the colors, in a simple way, increasing their self-esteem and improving their quality of life.
While this system is not yet mandatory, what you can do is ask for help from someone who is not color blind to help write the appropriate symbol on the labels of clothes and shoes, as well as pens and colored pencils so that whenever the colorblind see the symbols know how to identify their color.
The ADD coding system is similar to the Braille language for the visually impaired and has been used in some countries in Europe. Here's how to learn to use it: How to teach the colorblind to learn in color.
