Colorful Cantigny for all

Cantigny Park is well known for its colorful gardens and grounds, especially this time of year. Now, even colorblind visitors can more fully enjoy the experience.

Cantigny is participating in the EnChroma Color Accessibility Program, offered by EnChroma, creators of patented eyewear for color blindness. Guests may now borrow EnChroma glasses at the information kiosk inside the Cantigny Park Visitors Center on a first-come, firstserved basis. The special glasses enable the colorblind to experience an expanded range of colors as well as enhanced vibrancy, clarity, and differentiation.

Various styles of glasses are available for children and adults, for use with or without prescription eyeglasses. The glasses are for indoor and outdoor use. There is no charge to borrow the glasses, but a $75 deposit is required.

“We’re committed to making everyone’s park experience as rich and complete as possible,” says Alicia Catalano, Cantigny Park membership and retail operations manager. “It’s exciting to know that our colorblind visitors can now walk through our gardens and museums and appreciate the brilliant colors that most of us take for granted.”

Cantigny is the first public attraction in the Chicago suburbs to acquire EnChroma glasses for its guests.

“We applaud Cantigny Park for giving those with color vision deficiency the ability to more fully experience their colorful gardens, exhibits and events with EnChroma glasses,” saya Erik Ritchie, EnChroma’s chief executive officer. “We hope that their example inspires more organizations to help us bring a world of more vibrant color to the colorblind.”

According to EnChroma, red-green color blindness affects 350 million people worldwide. The trait is inherited genetically and carried recessively on the X-chromosome, affecting about one in 12 men (8%) and one in 200 women (5%). EnChroma offers a simple test for color blindness on its website.

The company’s lenses are engineered with special optical filters that enable those with red-green color blindness to see colors more vibrantly and distinctly. A recent study by the University of California, Davis, demonstrated the benefits of the glasses. The EnChroma Color Accessibility Program helps public venues — such as schools, museums, libraries, and parks — make EnChroma glasses available to colorblind students or visitors to help them overcome obstacles and/or access more of life’s colorful experiences.

Cantigny Park is open daily 7 a.m. to sunset. Parking is $5 per car and free on the first Wednesday of the month. For more information, visit cantigny.org.