What Is Color Blindness?

People who cannot tell all colors apart are said to be color blind. Most color-blind people can see yellows and blues, but confuse reds with greens. It is very rare for a person to be blind to all colors, but those who are see everything in shades of black, white, and gray.

It is interesting to note that many colorblind people don’t even realize that they are color blind, they don’t know that the colors they are seeing and naming are not the actual colors that people with normal vision can see. This can be particularly dangerous when a color-blind person confuses the red and green of a traffic light.

Color blindness is thought to be inherited, and although doctors have devised tests to determine color blindness, there is no cure or treatment for it.

No one knows why, but more men than women are color blind, about 8 out of every 200 men, as compared to 1 out of every 200 women!