What is Color-Blindness?
Unfortunately, humans have the potential to either inherit or acquire color vision deficiencies--most commonly color blindness. The range in these deficiencies can be moderate to severe. A person is considered to have monochromatic color blindness when he/she is unable to see color and typically occurs when two or all three of the cone pigments are lacking in their retina systems (Lambert, 2013). In this case, a person is totally unable to distinguish any color from a complete gray scale (Lambert, 2013). Dichromacy typically affects males more than females and is a moderate to severe type of color deficiency that results when one of the three basic color cones is absent or not functioning properly (Douma, 2008). In this type of color blindness, a person has difficulty distinguishing between their reds, yellows, and greens from one another. Lastly, trichromacy occurs when one of the three-cone pigment does not respond properly to its specific spectral sensitivity (Douma, 2008). As stated previously, color deficiencies can be inherited, but can also occur at anytime during a human being’s lifetime. See Figure 5 below for an example of what it the world looks like through someone who is colorblind: