Defining Color Blindness in Class
While the majority of the individuals find color definition easy to distinguish, rather it’s a flashing yellow caution light from a flashing red, a bright green sweater compared to a purple one, or even the subtle nuances of distinguishing between navy and grey, there is a notable subset of the population who do not find such tasks easy or in many cases, even possible.
An estimated eight percent of males and less than one percent of females have at least some color vision deficiency according to the latest data Gretchyn Bailey in “All About Vision”. There are a variety of free, on-line tests to pretest for color blindness. However, opticians can provide more comprehensive diagnostic evaluations to determine the type and range of a patient’s color blindness.
While the most common color vision deficiency is red-green, there is also a type of color blindness which impairs a person’s ability to see blue and yellow hues. Some of the signs and symptoms take years to recognize simply because the individual does not realize that others are seeing things differently. While most individuals who are diagnosed as color blind see a wider range than strictly shades of grey, the reality is that many of the spectral colors they perceive are very washed out and only have some remnant of a color. It is this faintness that keeps them from being able to distinguish the colors many colors in the spectrum from one another.
In brief color blindness is characterized as light-sensitive cells within the retina being unable to respond appropriately to variable wavelengths of light which are necessary in order to see a variety of colors. The inheritance pattern of color blindness shows it to be a sex linked or X-linked trait. Basically, the deficit is carried on the X chromosome. Given that males have only one X, they are many times more likely to demonstrate the condition than females who can carry an X that is deficit to color but also have a normal X which masks the expression of the deficit.
Unfortunately, there is currently no known cure for color blindness; however, there is gene research underway with primates that offers some promising potential. In the interim, for both educators and parents who work with color blind students there are a variety of strategies that can help the student more effectively cope in the color filled world. These include ensuring that the parties are all aware of the condition. It is difficult to help if you are not fully aware. Strategies include making sure that safety precautions are available to the color deficient student to ensure that he or she is not required to synthesize color to recognize a hazard. It is also key that any lab activities as well as chart or graph to be interpreted has either another student to help interpret or is given a non-color coded version with alternate line shapes versus color codes to help the student differentiate the data.
Understanding and anticipating that students with color blindness must operate in an environment where color definition is used to translate the world, especially with regard to dangers, hazards, charts and graphs, along with most street and subway navigations, it is paramount that the adults help them to develop a variety of strategies to decode the invisible world around them, such that they can effectively and safely operate within what may be considered a complex and confusing system without the benefit of a full range of colors to decode.
Dr. Angela Farmer is a lifelong learner, a syndicated columnist, and an author. She serves Mississippi State University as an Assistant Clinical Professor of the Honors College where she can be reached at afarmer@honors.msstate.edu