It is based on the longer documentary, “ No such thing as color.” This is a short documentary that was put together to explain color vision deficiency to children. What is it like to have color vision deficiency? Achromotopsia is also associated with poor visual acuity and nystagmus. This is called “achromotopsia” and is very rare: it affects around 1 in 30,000 people. Some people truly are “color blind” in that they cannot see any colors at all. About 8% of men and about 0.5% of women have a color vision deficiency. Color vision is encoded on the X chromosome, which means that men are far more likely to have color vision deficiencies than women.

Those with strong color vision deficiencies may only be able to distinguish 20 colors.Ĭolor vision deficiency is usually hereditary, though it is sometimes caused by injury.

People with normal color vision can distinguish more than 100 different colors. The most common types of color vision deficiencies are with shades of reds and greens. “Color blindness” is actually a misleading term, the more accurate term is “color vision deficiency.” Nearly everyone can distinguish some colors, but people with color vision deficiency have trouble seeing differences between certain shades of colors. Image credit: National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health Ref#: EE56 What is color blindness or color vision deficiency? This article has been viewed 15,931 times.Child taking a color vision test. She is a member and serves on several committees within the American Academy of Ophthalmology, The American Academy of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus and sits on the board of directors of Combat Blindness International. She holds a BS in Biology and Latin American, Caribbean & Iberian Studies from The University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Masters of Public Health (MPH) in International Health, Child Health, Epidemiology & Biostatistics from Johns Hopkins University, and an MD from The University of Wisconsin-Madison. Hariharan has worked with global institutions including the World Health Organization, the American Academy of Ophthalmology, Orbis, and Sightlife. She specializes in pediatric ophthalmology and preventing childhood blindness. She currently is a Pediatric Ophthalmologist at Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami, Florida. Luxme Hariharan is a Board Certified Pediatric Ophthalmologist. This article was co-authored by Luxme Hariharan, MD, MPH. This article has been viewed 15,931 times. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.

Color blind test for young kids