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50 Facts about Color Blindness

 #01 99% of all colorblind people are not really color blind but color deficient; the term color blindness is misleading.

#02 Red-green color blindness is a combination of red-blindness (protan defects) and green-blindness (deutan defects).

#03 Color blindness is more prevalent among males than females, because the most common form of color vision deficiency is encoded on the X sex chromosome.

#04 “What color is this?” is the most annoying question you can ask your colorblind friend.

#05 There are three main types of color vision deficiency: protan, deutan, and tritan defects.

#06 Strongly colorblind people might only be able to tell about 20 hues apart from each other, with normal color vision this number raises to more than 100 different hues.

#07 Colored lenses or glasses can improve color discrimination in your problem areas but can not give you back normal color vision.

#08 Ishihara plates are the best known color blindness tests, but they are not the most accurate ones.

#09 About 8% of all men are suffering from color blindness.

#10 Severity of color blindness is usually divided into the following four categories: slightly, moderate, strong, and absolute.

#11 The terms protan, deutan, and tritan are Greek and translate to first, second, and third.

#12 A father can’t pass his red-green color blindness on to his sons.

#13 Dogs are not colorblind.

#14 Color vision deficiency would be a much better term; but it is not as easy to pronounce compared to color blindness.

#15 There are people which are really suffering from complete color blindness, which is called achromatopsia or monochromacy.

#16 Blue-yellow color blindness would be better called blue-green color blindness, as this are more the problem colors.

#17 There exists every nuance of color vision deficiency severity, starting from almost normal color vision up to complete color blindness.

#18 Protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia are types of dichromacy, which means you have only two different color receptors (cones) compared to three with normal color vision.

#19 If a woman is red-green colorblind, all her sons will also be colorblind.

#20 Colorblind people feel handicapped in everyday life, and almost nobody recognizes this.

#21 99% of all colorblind people are suffering from red-green color blindness.

#22 When using color correcting lenses you are wearing two differently colored lenses in your eyes.

#23 Red-green color blindness is a recessive sex linked trait, which causes more men to be colorblind than women.

#24 John Dalton wrote the first known scientific paper regarding color blindness.

#25 Protanomaly, deuteranomaly, and tritanomaly are types of anomalous trichromacy, which means you have three different color receptors (cones) like people with normal color vision but one of them is shifted in its peak.

#26 In certain countries you need normal color vision to get a drivers license.

#27 Deuteranomaly—one form of red-green color blindness—is by far the most common form of color blindness.

#28 More women than men are carriers of color blindness, even though they are not colorblind themselves.

#29 Some people get rejected from a job assignment because of their color vision deficiency.

#30 About 0.5% of all women are suffering from color blindness.

#31 Blue-yellow color blindness is a dominant not sex linked trait, which means both men and women are equally affected.

#32 Red-green color blindness doesn’t mean that you are only mixing up red and green colors, but the whole color spectrum can cause you problems.

#33 The anomaloscope is the most accurate color blindness test known today.

#34 Police officer, firefighter, and airline pilot are the most famous jobs which require normal color vision.

#35 There is no treatment or cure for color blindness.

#36 Pseudoisochromatic plates were introduced by Professor J. Stilling of Strassburg in 1883; the Ishihara plates by Dr. Shinobu Ishihara followed almost half a century later.

#37 Different chromosomes are involved as sources for the different types of color vision deficiency.

#38 Women can also suffer from color vision deficiency.

#39 Monochromacy—also called achromatopsia—means you have only one type of color receptors (cones) in your eyes.

#40 Color blindness is also called Daltonism, after the scientist John Dalton.

#41 The most often used types of color blindness tests are: pseudoisochromatic plates, arrangement test, and the anomaloscope.

#42 Better color vision deficiency terms would be: red-blindness for protanopia, red-weakness for protanomaly, green-blindness for deuteranopia, green-weakness for deuteranomaly, blue-blindness for tritanopia, and blue-weakness for tritanomaly.

#43 John Dalton believed his whole life that the cause of his color blindness is a colored fluid inside his eye balls.

#44 Many colorblind people have problems with matching clothes and buying ripe bananas.

#45 Quite a lot of people with normal color vision can’t pass an Ishihara plates test free of errors.

#46 The International Colour Vision Society is scientifically investigating every aspect of color vision and color vision deficiency.

#47 Confusion lines of the CIE 1931 color space show exactly the colors of confusion for all forms of color blindness.

#48 Only a whole battery of color blindness tests can reveal the true type and severity of your color vision deficiency.

#49 John Dalton was also colorblind himself.

#50 A Colblindor is a colorblind person who learned to enjoy his colorblind life ;-)