The World of Color Vision Deficiency

Color vision deficiency: we offer two tests.
○ Ishihara color test plates
○ Panel D-15

“Color vision deficiency cannot be cured” — many people may feel this way.
People with it live in a world where colors look different from how most other people see them.
The word “deficiency” may not even be the right one.
Rather than something without a treatment, it may be better to see it as
a difference in how each person sees color.For everyone else:

It helps to know how colors look to people with color blindness or color weakness, and to be considerate about
colors that are easy to confuse,

  • colors that are hard to see,
  • and colors that are easy to see.
  • and so on.

This is an explanation with photographs.

The World of Color Vision Deficiency

TOC

Colors that look different with color vision deficiency

We show various examples of how things look different to people with color blindness or color weakness, using photographs.

Writing on a green chalkboard with red chalk can be hard to read

Barbecue and grilled meat: how well the meat is cooked
Freshness of apples: light red and dark red
Pink and white are hard to tell apart
Colors of red and green bell peppers
Most color vision deficiency is red-green deficiency (described below).

In situations like the following,

it can bedifficultto tell colors apart.

Confusion colors in congenital red-green color vision deficiency

  1. Red and green
  2. Orange and yellow-green
  3. Brown and green
  4. Blue and purple
  5. Pink and white or gray
  6. Green and gray or black
  7. Red and black
  8. Pink and light blue

People with protan deficiency tend to confuse 1 through 8 with each other, and those with deutan deficiency tend to confuse 1 through 6.

Red LED lamps, which are often used for warning displays, can be hard to recognize even for a person with protan anomalous trichromacy who passes Panel D-15.

Kaoru Nakamura, Nippon no Ganka 91(11) (2020): 1515-1519

色覚異常で見分けにくい色の組み合わせの例(日本眼科医会提供):赤と緑、黄緑と橙、茶と緑、緑と灰色/黒、青と紫、ピンクと白/灰色、水色とピンク、赤と黒。※この図は検査表ではありません
Japan Ophthalmologists Association websiteSource:

How things look: simulation of the experience

You can simulate how things look to people with color blindness or color weakness.

What does it actually mean for the way colors look to be different? Using several examples, you can experience how things look to people with a color vision disability.

(The images are simulated based on a specific theory and formula. They do not show how every person with a color vision disability sees, so please keep this in mind.)

From the Toyo Ink website

»“Color vision disability” simulated experience

An introduction to an app that shows how colors look to people with color vision deficiency.

Color simulator

Check contrast ratios: use an app

When designing, you can check the text color against its background.

Adobe Color

It checks the contrast ratio and gives a Pass/Fail result.
It is a handy tool.

Color vision tests

○ Ishihara color test plates (international edition, 38 plates)
Distinguishes normal color vision from suspected color vision deficiency.

○ Panel D-15
Classifies color vision deficiency as severe or moderate-or-milder.

Retinal photoreceptors: “rods” that detect brightness, and “cones” that detect RGB (red, green, blue)

視細胞(Photoreceptor cell)の図解(英語表記):眼球断面図と網膜の拡大図で、錐体細胞(cone cell)と杆体細胞(rod cell)の配置、中心窩・盲点の位置を示す

The retina’s photoreceptor cells come in two types.

○ RodsRod cell
Distinguish brightness and darkness:
They are especially useful for seeing in dim places.

○ ConesCone cell
Distinguish red, green, and blue (Red/Green/Blue)
When looking at the central area

Red cone L cone long wavelength R
Green cone M cone medium wavelength G
Blue cone S cone short wavelength B

The brain tells colors apart from the combination of each cone’s response
→ and recognizes it as “color.”

Causes and classification of color vision deficiency: “type __” “__ chromacy”

So-called “color blindness” is dichromacy, and “color weakness” is trichromacy (anomalous).
Severity runs in the order monochromacy > dichromacy > anomalous trichromacy.

They are also classified by RGB as type 1 (R), type 2 (G), and type 3 (B).

視細胞の図解その2(英語表記):網膜における杆体(rods)と錐体(cones)の分布と、赤・緑・青の3種類の錐体細胞および杆体細胞の模式図

Type 1: abnormality of the red cone (L cone)
Type 2: abnormality of the green cone (M cone)
Type 3: abnormality of the blue cone (S cone)

Monochromacy (total color blindness): affects visual acuity
Rod monochromacy: only rods (no cones)
Cone monochromacy

Dichromacy: so-called “color blindness”; absence of just one of the RGBcone types Dichromacy
Protanopia (type 1 dichromacy): 1% of men
Deuteranopia (type 2 dichromacy): 1% of men
Tritanopia (type 3 dichromacy): below 1% in both men and women

Anomalous trichromacy: so-called “color weakness”; dysfunction or reduced sensitivity ofjust one of the RGB cone types Anomalous trichromacy
Protanomaly (type 1 anomalous trichromacy): 1% of men, 0.01% of women
Deuteranomaly (type 2 anomalous trichromacy): 6% of men, 0.4% of women
Tritanomaly (type 3 anomalous trichromacy): 0.01% in both men and women

Congenital cone color vision deficiency means
that the sensitivity of one of red, green, or blue (Red/Green/Blue) is low,
so that colors are perceived differently.

Change in the red cone: type 1 color vision 
1 in 20 men (5%)
1 in 500 women (0.2%)

Change in the green cone: type 2 color vision 
1 in 20 men (5%)
1 in 500 women (0.2%)

Color vision deficiency: difficult or restricted occupations

Work that tends to be difficult even with anomalous trichromacy
Train driver, color adjustment of video equipment, ink adjustment and color proofing in printing, dyeing, painting, titration experiments

Work thought to be difficult with dichromacy
Ship navigator, airline pilot, aircraft and railway maintenance, police officer, commercial designer, photographer, paramedic, nurse, dental technician, veterinarian, hairdresser, clothing sales, server monitoring, kaiseki chef, work that judges food freshness

Work that can be done with little extra effort even with dichromacy
Physician, dentist, pharmacist, teacher, cook, barber, artist, architect, electrician, general office work involving a computer terminal

Work with no problem at all even with dichromacy
General office work with monochrome documents,
and other work that does not require color discrimination (including work in which all information other than color is also provided)

Kaoru Nakamura. Occupational problems of congenital color vision deficiency. Journal of Tokyo Women’s Medical University, vol. 82, 59-62, Extra, 2012

Diseases that cause color vision deficiency in adulthood (acquired color vision deficiency)

Color vision deficiency can also occur when the retina is damaged later in life.
The difference from congenital color vision deficiency is that the symptoms change.
(They can worsen or improve.)

Chronic diseases:
Diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, leukemia, liver disease, Alzheimer’s disease, chronic alcoholism, macular degeneration, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, sickle cell disease, retinitis pigmentosa

Accidents, brain disorders, and retinal vascular disorders:
Cerebral hemorrhage, cerebral thrombosis, retinal vein occlusion, retinal artery occlusion

Oral medications:
Antibiotics, tranquilizers, antituberculosis drugs, antihypertensives, and others

Aging:
Reduced retinal sensitivity with age

Famous people with color vision deficiency

Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
ビル・クリントン – 停滞するアメリカをいかに建て直したか

Keanu Reeves
Keanu Reeves

俳優キアヌ・リーブスの写真

ジョン・ウィック:パラベラム(字幕版)

Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg

Meta社CEOマーク・ザッカーバーグの写真

Red-green color vision deficiency.
He started Facebook in a Harvard University dormitory in 2004.
In 2012 he brought Instagram under the company.
Facebook’s blue corporate color is reportedly the color that is easiest for Zuckerberg to see.
ソーシャル・ネットワーク (字幕版)
Facebookを創った男: ザッカーバーグ・ストーリー The Mark Zuckerberg Story

Mark Twain
Mark Twain
トム・ソーヤーの冒険 (新潮文庫) | マーク トウェイン

Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby
One of the best-known American pop musicians, with songs such as “White Christmas.”
Bing Crosby – White Christmas

John Dalton
John Dalton
British chemist, physicist, and meteorologist.
He published research on his own congenital color vision deficiency.
As a result, congenital color vision deficiency came to be called Daltonism.
‎‎Sim Daltonism (Mac App Store)

Paul Newman
Paul Newman
メッセージ・イン・ア・ボトル

Prince William
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge

Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolan
プレステージ

» Amazon Prime Video

About color vision deficiency: introducing books that explain it clearly

「家庭・保育園・学校でできるサポート術」
» コミックQ&A 色弱の子どもがわかる本

Takeru Yoshimura, M.D., Ph.D.

たける眼科
takeru-eye.com
福岡市早良区「高取商店街」
西新駅/藤崎駅(福岡市地下鉄)

日本眼科学会 眼科専門医
医学博士(九州大学)

Takeru Yoshimura, M.D., Ph.D.

当ウェブサイトに掲載されている情報は、一般的な情報提供のみを目的としており、個別の医療アドバイスに代わるものではありません。ご自身の健康状態や治療に関するご質問は、必ず眼科専門医・医療専門家にご相談ください。

眼科で使う言葉:思っていた意味と、実際の意味

https://takeru-eye.com/blog/eye-clinic-words-misconceptions/

「症状」を“Googleする”:医療情報を正しくつかうために

https://takeru-eye.com/blog/04102021-never-google-your-symptoms/

目の炎症とは?

https://takeru-eye.com/ocularinflammation/

 

 

TOC