COMMON TYPES OF COLOR BLINDNESS

As mentioned prior, color blindness is not simply an individual’s ability to view in black and white only.

To be more specific, there are three common types of color blindness. These three types start with a mild

inability to discriminate between red, green, and blue. The following are the most common types along

with their classification by severity based on the research article “Colour vision deficiency” by

Simunovic, M. P. (2010);

Color blindness comes in the following types:

 Red Green Color Blind(most common)

o Dichromacy (protanopia and deuteranopia)

o Anomalous trichromacy (protanomaly and deuteranomaly)

 Blue Yellow Color Blind

o Dichromacy (tritanopia)

o Anomalous trichromacy (tritanomaly)

 Total Color Blindness (least common)

The most common type of color blindness is red green color blindness, this type affects about 95% of all

color blind people. The remaining 5% is made up of blue yellow color blindness, and less commonly –

total color blindness. Within each color deficiency is the possibility of being either partially blind to that

color, or totally. For example green deficient is more common, but being totally unable to see red is

second most common.

GREEN COLOR BLINDNESS – DEUTERANOPIA & DEUTERANOMALY

Green color blindness is by far the most common form; around 6% of the total male population is green

color blind – primarily as a mild deficiency.

As with red color blindness, green color blind people can be categorised in two groups:

 Deuteranopia: the M-cones are missing, or non-functional, resulting in blindness to the green

portion of the spectrum. 5% of males and 0.1% of females suffer this form of green color

blindness.

 Deuteranomaly: The M-Cones are defective, operating below normal capacity to interfere with a

person’s ability to see some shades of green, shifting color sensitivity toward the red sensitive L-

cones. 1% of males and 0.35% of females suffer this form.

As with most forms of color blindness, Green color blindness is also sex linked, being passed on to

children through faulty genetic coding in the X chromosome.

BLUE YELLOW COLOR BLINDNESS

Blue yellow color blindness is quite uncommon, and the name itself taken as a description is actually

quite misleading. People who are blue yellow color blind will confuse some shades of blue with green,

and some shades of yellow with violet. Much like red green color blindness, those who are blue yellow

color blind can be categorised in two ways.

 Tritanopia: the S-cones are missing or non-functional, resulting in blindness to the blue end of

the spectrum.

 Tritanomaly: the s-cones are defective, operating below normal capacity to interfere with a

person’s ability to see some shades of blue.

TOTAL COLOR BLINDNESS

Total color blindness is a severe vision impairment leaving a person completely unable to distinguish any

color – seeing things only in grayscale (shades of black and white). There are two types of total color

vision (or monochromacy).

COLOR BLINDNESS IS NO JOKE

Color blindness can cause serious problems. People who are color-blind have trouble reading color-coded

information on maps. Children with color blindness may have trouble in school. Red-green color

blindness makes it difficult to read yellow chalk on a green chalkboard. All types of color blindness make

it difficult to choose the correct color for arts and science projects.

Color blindness can also cause safety issues. Fire hydrants, car warning lights and emergency equipment

are often colored red or yellow to make them more visible. These bright color may be obvious to those

with full-color blindness vision but unnoticeable to those who are color-blind. People may also have

difficulty noticing sunburns, rashes or undercooked meat without color vision.

Color blindness can even limit a person’s career options. Geologist and airline pilots need full-color

vision. Other careers such as interior design, photography and food infection are much difficult without

it.

Simunovic, M. P. (2010). Colour vision deficiency. Eye, 24(5), 747-755.

doi:10.1038/eye.2009.251