Color Blindness

Color blindness is a common eye condition that makes it difficult to distinguish certain colors. A person that is color blind often experiences problems determining colors like yellow, red, blue or green. Color blindness refers to a deficiency in the way you see color, and not any form of blindness.

This vision impairment mainly occurs among males and is the result of a recessive X-linked gene. Females are the natural transmitter of the color deficient gene but are rarely carriers. Mothers often transmit the deficient gene to their sons but are thus rarely color blind themselves.

Color blindness among females occurs only when the color-deficient gene is passed from father to daughter, if the mother carries the gene as well.

The problem is caused by a cell defect in the retina of the eye. The light absorbing tissue in the back of the eye that transforms what we see into signals to the brain partly contains cells that distinguish colors. When these cells in the retina are not working correctly color blindness occurs.

There is no cure for color blindness and most adults with this vision impairment from birth live without any major discomfort or disadvantages. However, there are cases where additional damage to the retina by aging or disease has led to almost complete color blindness.

Most common symptoms are, like mentioned above, the inability to distinguish common colors like red, green, blue or yellow. If you experience any difficulty in seeing color we recommend you visit your local eye doctor for a proper eye examination. Feel free to test your eyesight in our color blindness online test below to determine your color perception.