Helping colour blind see

Dominion Post

ROSE TINTED: optometrist Molly Whittington has been running a trial of lenses to help the colour blind.

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Thousands of New Zealanders afflicted with colour blindness can now avoid the perils of wearing odd socks and running red lights with the advent of "colour-fixing" lenses.

Auckland optometrist Molly Whittington, who has been running a trial of the ColorView lenses during the past year, said the impact for some participants had been life-changing.

"When you have a colour deficiency, the world is a drab place you can't appreciate the beauty of flowers, you could be mocked for wearing odd socks or clashing colours, and often it's harder to find things because you can't see contrast as well."

Only a tiny minority of people are actually "colour-blind" they cannot see colours but colour deficiencies (which are hereditary) are common, affecting about one in 12 Kiwi men and one in 270 women.

There are three types of cones colour-vision receptors in the eye, which pick up different light frequencies in the spectrum.

People who are colour-deficient see two-thirds of colours correctly but confuse some colours, typically greens, orangey-browns, mauve and purple.

They also perceive colours as less bright or vivid.

The colour-correcting lenses by Japanese firm Seiko, which look like stylish sunglasses and sell for about $1200 a pair, filter out certain wavelengths of light, allowing wearers to distinguish between colours.

Whittington, who yesterday presented the findings to the Association of Dispensing Opticians annual conference, said all 30 people in the trial reported improvements in their colour experience.

More than 70 per cent of people had trouble matching clothing, but with the lenses that dropped to less than 20%.

The number of people who had been unable to tell the difference between flowers and foliage fell from 75% to 10%, and the percentage who had difficulty with traffic lights halved to about 20%.

One man, a pilot, said it was "easier to identify wind-socks; red wine no longer looks black, and (easier perception of) brake lights allows smoother driving".

Hunters said they found it easier to distinguish the fluorescent high-visibility vests worn by fellow hunters.

The more extreme the colour deficiency someone had, the darker the lenses that were needed which made them impractical to be worn in low light or at night, Whittington said. Dominion Post

- © Fairfax NZ News