How Colorblind People See The World - See From The Eyes Of A Colorblind

Amir Kosari
Jul 8, 2020
3 min read

Updated: Jun 12, 2024

If your first thought about colorblind people was “Do they see the world in black & white?”, then this blog is for you!

Colorblind people don’t see the world in black and white, they can see color, but they have a narrowed color perception. Colors lie closer to each other and are not as vibrant or bright as someone who isn’t color blind would see it.

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How good is your vision? Can you see objects that are 200 meters away or directly in front of your face? That's great to hear, but those aren't the only metrics involved in perfect vision. You also have to account for how well you see color. Can you test that? You sure can! Look at this image. There is a word hidden in there.

If you were able to see the word inside of this circle of this image, then you have a normal vision. Colorblind people are not able to see the number between these dots, because they all blend into one color or similar colors. They can see some shade between some darker areas (darker dots), but they are not able to see the number.

Colorblind people are good at shade recognition, but it doesn't mean they can see the color. They might see something that looks brighter or darker, but “what colors is it?” That's a question they are not able to answer.

The word in that image is "NO". Were you able to see it?

Isn't it so fascinating to see the world from the eyes of a colorblind person? We got used to seeing bright colors aboard us, but how would the world look if it was dimmer with only a few colors that can catch your attention.

The ability to distinguish between colors can be crucial when navigating through everyday lives. Color-blind people may have difficulties judging traffic lights, reading maps, determining if food has gone bad, and buying clothes.

(Normal Color Vision, Week-Color Vision, Blind-color Vision)

So now you probably realize how it can be incredibly confusing.

*If you are a colorblind person and seeing these images probably you won't notice so much difference between colors on these images.

THERE ARE DIFFERENT TYPES OF COLOR BLINDNESS:

GREEN (DEUTERAN) COLOR BLINDNESS

The green-weak (Deuteranomaly) and green-blind (Deuteranopia) colorblind have problems with any color that has some green in it.

Deutan color blindness is a type of red-green color blindness in which the green cones in the eye detect too much red light and not enough green light. As a result red, yellow, green, and brown can appear similar, especially in low light.

(Normal Vision. Green-Week, Green-Blind)

RED (PROTAN) COLOR BLINDNESS

The red-weak (Protanomaly) and Red-blind (Protanopia) colorblind have problems whenever a color has some red in it.

A person with protan type color blindness tends to see greens, yellows, oranges, reds, and browns as being more similar shades of color than normal, especially in low light.

A very common problem is that purple colors look more like blue.

(Normal Vision. Red-Week, Red-Blind)

BLUE (TRITAN) COLOR BLINDNESS

The blue-weak (Tritanomaly) and blue-blind (Tritanopia) colorblind have problems seeing the color blue.

(Normal Vision. Blue-Week, Blue-Blind)

MONOCHROMACY COLOR BLINDNESS

Rod monochromacy (RM), also called congenital complete achromatopsia or total color blindness, is a rare and extremely severe form of an autosomal recessively inherited retinal disorder resulting in severe visual handicap.

Rod monochromacy is a very rare form of color deficiency, affecting only 1 in every 30,000 people).