Years ago my daughter told me about some glasses that would correct color blindness so I went online to find out about them and of course to check prices. She told me she had watched several videos in which people had put on the glasses and burst into tears because of the beauty they saw for the first time. At that point in time it just didn’t seem that important to me, maybe because it was just too new, and I thought the prices seemed high. But then Ginny, a blogging friend, recently sent me an article that told how National Parks, Museums, Libraries, and other public places were loaning color correcting glasses to the public. So again I went online and found some for $119.00. and that’s what you see above, sitting on their cleaning cloth. They have titanium frames and titanium is just one of seven different coatings on the lenses.
Just so you know, I’m not promoting the Pilestone Company and I’m not receiving any kickbacks from them; they just happen to be the company I chose to do business with. There are others, so if you’re interested you really should shop around. You can spend more if you wish.
So the package arrived from Pennsylvania and I excitedly put the glasses on and said Pink?? I’m going to see the world tinted pink?? What you see above is a photo looking through a lens at a white piece of paper and yes, they really are that color. But they’re that color because that is the color that corrects my particular form of color blindness. Other forms of color blindness need different colored lenses. I’ve seen others that looked blue.
If I understand what I’ve read correctly there are outdoor and indoor lenses because of the difference in the quality of light. Inside when I put them on everything turned pink, so I couldn’t wait to get outside and see if that changed. But then it snowed, and the world went back to black and white. One day impatience got the better of me and I decided that I couldn’t wait any longer, so I went out with them on.
I’ll admit that I was highly skeptical about the glasses because of the pink color but I have to say, when I went outside I found out why the people in those videos were crying, because it was almost as if I was back in the 60s and had taken LSD. What I saw was amazing; everything was sharper, crisper, and colors glowed. It was as if all the colors had become children and here I was, on their playground. They laughed and shouted and were more alive than I had ever seen them. And nothing, not even the snow, was pink. The red of a stop sign looked more like what I’ve always thought of as orange. In fact all the different reds I looked at leaned towards my idea of orange, but one of those ugly blue plastic tarps was so intensely BLUE! it was if I could have seen it from miles away. The yellow on a business sign shouted look at me! They were all old friends but with fresh new faces, and even last year’s dead oak and beech leaves came alive and seemed to vibrate. Life “popped” is the only way I can describe it, and so I wandered around raising and lowering the glasses as if in a daze. I’m very anxious to see flowers now.
I would say, if you happen to be color blind, that you really should give these glasses a try. If they don’t work for you, you get your money back so there is nothing to lose. There is no cure for color blindness so it is color correcting glasses, contacts, or color blindness, period. You start by choosing a company that offers the glasses, and then you take a simple online test.
I think we’ve probably all seen some version of this test for color blindness, most likely as school children. What I see here is an easily seen number 16 in the upper right corner and a kind of vague, less easily seen number 8 in the lower left. For me, all other circles have no numbers in them, and I think it was in fourth or fifth grade that I first failed a color blindness test and was told that I was color blind. You can take a similar, more extensive test online now at many different websites. The following results are what I saw after taking the test online at the Pilestone Company website:
Dichromats: Deuteranopia (also called green-blind). In this case the medium wavelength sensitive cones (green) are missing. A deuteranope can only distinguish 2 to 3 different hues, whereas somebody with normal vision sees 7 different hues.
Anomalous Trichromats: Deuteranomaly (green-weak). This can be everything between almost normal color vision and deuteranopia. The green sensitive cones are not missing in this case, but the peak of sensitivity is moved towards the red sensitive cones.
The retina of the human eye contains photoreceptors called rods and cones. Rods are sensitive to light, but cannot perceive color. Cones are responsible for color vision. Absence of, or defect in these cones results in color blindness.
Color blindness I can safely say, isn’t at all like what you imagine it to be unless you are color blind. When I see a photo, or even a real-life scene of something like the above I immediately have to question what I’m seeing. While I’d guess that there are probably red and green peppers in this photo, I see only different shades of green, and the photo on the right looks closest to what I’d call normal or “real.” If there are red peppers and you picked one up and isolated it from the green I’d be able to see the red, but red and green together just make different shades of green to me. I found this photo online and it came with no explanation other than the bold text so I’m left to guess, and that’s what life is for a color blind person. It’s all a guessing game due to what are called “confusion colors.” You can’t trust your own eyes, because you can never be certain that the color you see is the true color.
Confusion colors are pairs or groups of colors that will often be mistaken by the color blind. Confusion colors for red–green color blindness include:
Cyan and Grey
Rose-Pink and Grey
Blue and Purple
Yellow and Neon Green
Red, Green, Orange, Brown
I happen to have all the above, but especially red/ green and blue/purple.
When you try to explain color blindness people will sometimes think you’re faking it, so they’ll try to test you by asking you what color this or that is. This is when their ignorance of what color blindness is shines like a beacon. What they think someone could gain by pretending to be color blind I don’t know, but aha! they’ll say, you can see this color so you aren’t colorblind. They don’t understand that someone who is color blind can usually see the same colors they can, but certain colors overlap and can resemble other colors.
The question I hear more than any other is can I see the different colors in a traffic light? The answer is yes, I can tell whether they are red, yellow, or green. The reason I can see them is because they don’t light up at the same time. If they did I might have to stop driving because with my type of color blindness red can appear green, and that wouldn’t be good. What I do have to be careful with are the single blinking traffic lights, because often from a distance I can’t tell if it’s blinking yellow (caution) or red (stop and then proceed with caution). To solve that problem, I usually just stop at all of them and then proceed. And I hear some horn blowing.
While there are some unfortunate people who can see only black and white, their number is very small. Less than 1% of the population, I believe. Most color blind people (8-12% of men and 0.4-0.5% of women) have color confusion like mine. People who can see only black and white and shades of gray have Achromatopsia, which is also known as monochromacy. It is considered disabling.
Just one of many jaw dropping WOW moments with the glasses on.
In day-to-day life color blindness hasn’t really been much of a problem as long as I didn’t have to choose a paint color or buy flowers or decide to become an artist. If you want to see what color blindness can really do to a person just show them a handful of color chip cards from a paint store; the kind with twenty different shades of gray, for example. I’ve been slowly re-doing this house over the years and one of the rooms gets very hot from afternoon sunlight so I thought I’d paint it a cooler, light gray color. I also thought gray would be the easiest color of all to choose but when I started looking at colors I thought I’d lose my mind. Do we really need so many different shades of gray?
Another WOW moment.
For this blog I use photo editors that allow you to manipulate colors in photos but I rarely use that function. I usually stay with just simply sharpening or maybe lightening a shot. If I made every photo look like what I thought I saw, you might wish you could take my camera away. Before I post a photo here I check it with my color blind software (called What Color?) so I don’t say things like “look at this beautiful yellow flower I found” when the flower is orange. So, if you’ve wondered how I can see the colors in photos, that’s how I do it.
Sometimes color blindness can be a good thing. Mushroom hunters complain that purple trumpet or black chanterelle mushrooms are one of the hardest of all mushrooms to find, but I find them easily. I wondered why until I read that color blind people are highly sought after by the military because of their ability to “see through” camouflage. According to research done at the University of Edinburgh, people with red-green color blindness can more effectively use pattern and texture recognition. They can recognize differences in the landscape by watching for certain changes in patterns and textures rather than color changes. One theory says color blindness evolved because it would have been useful back when we all foraged for food. Part of our group or tribe would have been better able to see ripe fruit against green leaves and others in the tribe would have been better able to see animal movements in the undergrowth. In that way, everyone got their meat and vegetables. I hadn’t really thought much about it until I read about it but it is true that I’ve always been able to easily see differences in forest litter. For instance, I can often find mushrooms by seeing where a leaf has been lifted away from others by a mushroom coming up under it. Apparently purple trumpets are easier for me to find because what I see first is a disturbance in the appearance of the forest floor, and that leads me to the mushrooms. It makes perfect sense, but only if you’re color blind.
Emerson Moser, who was Crayola’s top crayon molder for almost 40 years, was color blind. It was a good thing he chose that career because you aren’t allowed to be an electrical engineer, a firefighter, a fighter pilot, or a paramedic if you’re color blind. And imagine being treated by a doctor who can’t see red. Testing sees that doesn’t happen.
I decided to do this post for two reasons. First is to let any color blind readers know that there is help out there. One of the worst things about being color blind is always having to rely on others to tell you what color things are, and I hope these glasses will let me and others get away from that. Maybe with them on I’ll be able to buy flowers without having to first find a clerk and ask them if they’re blue or purple. You can’t always go by the tag; some flowers can be more purple than blue, even when it says blue in the name. Such seemingly slight details mattered to the kind of people I used to garden for. One lady wouldn’t hear of having purple flowers in her garden because, she said “purple is for funerals.” Funny, I always thought it was for royalty.
The second reason I’ve done this post is to hopefully give those who aren’t color blind a better understanding of what color blindness is and how color blind people see and deal with life. If someone walks up to you in a grocery store and asks you if the tomatoes they’re holding look ripe, maybe now you’ll have a better sense of what’s going on. And yes, I have had to do this.
Finally, putting this post together has reminded me to always be grateful for being able to see. I’ve lived with the blind, so I know how fortunate I am. Sight, even if it takes the form of monochromacy, is a great gift.
An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while a pessimist sees only the red stoplight… the truly wise person is colorblind. ~Albert Schweitzer
Thanks for stopping in.
Note: The Crayola stamp shown is part of the U.S. Postal Service’s “Celebrate the Century” series issued in 1998.
American Foundation for the Blind
1108 Third Avenue, Suite 200
Huntington, WV 25701
https://www.afb.org/blindness-and-low-vision
New Hampshire Garden Solutions 
I’m just catching up here, Allen. Thank you for the post not only on color blindness, but also first hand how the world looks to you.
I am unable to “Like” posts or comments from within the WP reader at this time, but I am here, and reading.
You’re welcome Lavinia. You haven’t missed much.
Hi Allen I’m glad you were able to get the glasses.
We got some for our grandson two years ago. His reaction when he put on the glasses for color blindness, looking at brightly colored balloons, was – Whoa! Wow! They look like real colors now!
Of course it is difficult for me to know exactly what he was seeing without the glasses. I imagine just shades of gray. I was concerned about him driving and knowing what color the signal light was. He had just graduated from high school and was leaving to live at college.
Your description of your experience has given me some insight about color blindness. So thank you for sharing.
I hope you see a more colorful Spring!
Hi Chris! I doubt your grandson was seeing just shades of gray because then he would have had black and white colorblindness and would never have passed the driver exam. More likely he had color confusion like about 99% of color blind people have. My big ones are red and green or blue and purple. Colors “overlap” so you don’t really know which color you’re seeing. The glasses help with this, but don’t eliminate it. It’s as if they remove a layer of dullness so you can see the true colors. In any event I’m sure your grandson sees better with them than he did without them. They were a great gift!
Allen, There is a fascinating article on the National Geographic site called “Island of the Colorblind” I think you will find it of great interest. And the photographs are out of this world.
Hi Lynne, thanks for the article!
This was interesting for sure but I think, like most people, the author doesn’t really understand achromatopsia. She starts off okay, saying it results in the “complete inability to distinguish colors.” But then she goes on to say that some islanders can see pink trees and the color red. This means that some of them must suffer from partial rather than total achromatopsia because with total achromatopsia you can only see black, white and gray. Maybe I’m just being picky but this is the kind of thing that has people telling me “Oh no, if you’re colorblind you can’t see colors, period” which of course isn’t true for all color blind people.
What is true is that color blind people often have extreme light sensitivity. Put me under a dentist’s light and my eyes stream tears until they turn it off, so I usually wear sunglasses outside.
It was interesting to hear about these poor souls, especially how they all got their color blindness from the king. I meant to mention that it was hereditary in this post but I forgot. What a great thing it would be for two or three color sighted people to go and live among them.
The photos are also interesting from an artistic point of view but they are far from what a color blind person actually sees. How I wish we could plug a color blind person into a computer so the world could see what we actually see. It’s close to impossible to describe or explain!
Thanks again!
Thank you for the clarity regarding the Nat G piece about color blindness.
Whatever the topic, I always learn something new and interesting from you, and always appreciate your perspective.
Thank you Lynne. I’m generally fairly laid back but when it comes to color blindness I have to speak up because there is a lot of accidental confusion connected to it.
I’ve always like obscure facts that nobody seems to pay any attention to and I’m guessing that must come through here on this blog. I’m glad you don’t mind.
Thank you for such a fascinating and illuminating post! I’m so excited for you to be having such a wonderful “LSD” experience. I’m reading “How to Do Nothing,” by Jenny Odell, and the author relates moments of clarified “seeing,” but from pieces of art; we could all benefit from “LSD” moments!!
You’re welcome Susan. There were no hallucinations involved, just the “enhanced sight” that comes with taking a small amount of LSD. It’s as if you can see a life force moving just under the surface of everything, including colors.
That sounds like another great book recommendation. I’ve certainly gleaned a few of those from this post.
I’ve experienced the moments of clarity that the author is speaking of, and they are reality. Forget the LSD; reality is much better.
Wow! Reading your posts all these years, I never would have imagined that you are color blind! I always thought I understood what color blind was, but your article has helped me realize that I was so wrong! Thank you so much for sharing this with us so that now we will hopefully be more aware of what some people experience their whole lives. It was amazing!
Thank you Susan. I’ve mentioned it here and there over the years but I never went into it very deeply until now.
I’m glad this post was educational for you. That’s what I hoped it would be!
I remember these tests and always aced them thanks for the blog it was very interesting. I am developing cataracts they say from blue eyes and never and sunglasses, but I cannot imagine surgery and what it would do for my painting as I am bold with color now. Enjoy the fresh look at gardens!
Thank you. You were lucky. I failed every one of them!
These day cataracts operations are easy and I’ve heard that, once they’re removed, your vision is much sharper and clearer. I’ll find out one day because I have them too, along with glaucoma.
Damn are we getting up there. 🙂
Thank you for sharing this. Your insight has helped us all stop and realize the value of the eyesight we take for granted. As well as the myriad of other things we too often ignore.
You’re welcome. I agree that we should try to be more grateful for what we have.
I’m so glad you took the initiative and ordered a pair of correcting glasses. It is a whole new world for you! You’re going to love the colors of spring and summer!
Thanks Eliza. Colors do seem new, or at least much fresher and sharper so yes, I’m impatiently looking forward to spring! You might see a lot of exclamation points in future posts!
👏🏼
Allen, that was very informative. Thanks for posting.
You’re welcome!
Your best and most informative post ever.
Amazing what you’ve been through your whole life
and yet your photos are outstanding.
Thanks for coming back and posting again.
Thanks Matt, I’m glad you liked it! It has been a little inconvenient at times to be color blind but it all worked out.
Fantastic post Allen. As always. Thank you!
You’re welcome Robin, and thank you. I’m glad you liked it!
I learned so much from this post – thank you. May you continue to be awed and amazed by the colors of this world!
You’re welcome Su, and thank you. I was pretty well awed and amazed by the beauty I saw before I got the glasses, but I know what you mean!
Great post. I’m glad you got your new glasses. I was going to make some kind of Elton John joke, but maybe the glasses aren’t quite big enough for that. As usual, I learned a lot here. I’m fascinated by the theory of how color blindness may have evolved and the distinction between the visual skills needed by the foragers and the hunters. Us engineers tend to like it when things make perfect sense. In addition to enjoying all the new spring colors, I should think the fall foliage will be equally amazing for you.
No, these glasses are the average size and pink is better than blue. Back in the days of Beatlemania I had some blue “granny glasses” that made me nauseated if I wore them to long. I could only wear them when I had to look cool or with it.
I hadn’t read about how / why color blindness had evolved until the other day when I was trying to find the reference for the Edenborough study that I mentioned in another earlier post. I can tell you that our tribe would have starved if they had sent me out to find red berries. Varmints yes, berries no.
Yes, I’ve already been thinking about what it will be like at Willard Pond this fall with these glasses on. It’s mind blowing without glasses so I can’t even imagine what it will be like with them on.
This is great! What fun you’re going to have. But you might find yourself lingering longer in a given location if you want to scope out mushrooms: Glasses on, glasses off.
For indoor glasses, I wonder whether you’d need different ones for fluorescent lights vs LED lights (or incandescent, if anyone’s still using those).
Another book recommendation is An Immense World by Ed Yong. It is about the ways non-human animals sense the world and it does talk about differences in vision–and of course touches on colorblindness.
I think you pointed out this fact before, so I’m pretty sure you know it already, but just in case: Blue vervain is actually purple. Drives me nuts (the name, not the color)!
Thanks Georgette. Yes, these glasses certainly do make you linger! I didn’t want to say anything about it because I didn’t want to spoil the test for anyone else but I did put the glasses on here at the computer and I could see numbers in every circle of the color blind test. Trouble was I left them on too long I think, because I started feeling kind of dizzy and strange.
There are full spectrum lights that mimic sunlight and they’re supposed to be much better for our physical and mental heath, but I don’t have the right kind of fixtures for them.
Yes, I knew about blue vervain but all I could think of when I was writing the post was blue false indigo, which also leans toward purple a lot of the time. Whoever named them was probably colorblind!
Thanks for another book recommendation. It sounds good and I’m making a list!
It just occurred to me that you’ll also see rainbows and even, if timing is right, the aurora borealis!
I haven’t heard of anyone seeing the aurora borealis here but we do have rainbows. I’ve only ever seen two of them though so maybe now I will see more. That would be fine!
Great post! Glad you’re able to see colors better with the new glasses. Jill Lockhardt
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Thank you Jill. They’re pretty amazing!
Thank you for sharing all this information. I found it fascinating and learned so much. And hooray for your new glasses! What fun you will have in the spring as you see all your long-time companions in a new way.
Thank you Daphne. Now if you ever meet someone who is color blind, what a conversation you’ll be able to have with them!
Yes, I’m even more anxious than usual for real spring to finally get here. It won’t be long. Today’s snow is already melting fast.
Your column always delights me and teaches me. This one is a gem, a different but valuable bit of natural history.
Thanks very much. This one is more human nature than what you usually find here, I agree. I’m glad you liked it!
Allen! You really need to share a pic with us of you wearing glasses with pink lenses! I’m so happy I thought to send you the article that caused you to reconsider getting these glasses. Life changing, huh?
And thanks for all the information on color blindness, it was most interesting. Soon we’ll be finished with snow and you can go forth into spring with new awe and wonder. I’m so excited for you!
Hi Ginny! I don’t know if you’ll see that image here right away but you never know!
I’m glad you sent that article too. It was just the extra push I needed, just at the right time. The part time job I had involved lots of color.
I’m excited too. I can’t wait to see a flower bed full of different color flowers!
What a wonderful post this morning. I am always learning something from you Allen. Thank you.
Thanks very much Dave. I hope you didn’t learn that you were color blind!
Very informative. Thank you! And I am very glad these glasses gave you the gift of colour. 🙂
Thank you Lee. They certainly boosted my opinion of them!
Just…..wow. I thought I understood colorblindness but I certainly did not. Nor that there were so many different types of it and severities. I’ve always thought your photos and descriptions to be beautiful – but now I’m astounded at how well you are able to capture and describe nuances that you didn’t perceive as your readers do. I’m so glad these glasses give you some ability to experience more color. Enjoy! Though this morning they won’t help us here in NH where everything is buried in white snow. Again! Think spring!!
Thanks Ruth. Don’t feel bad; I think it’s safe to say that the only people who really understand color blindness are the color blind.
I’ve spent most of my life out in nature so I know what color many plants and flowers are already without needing any help, but I always run into new things and those are what I’m looking forward to using the glasses for. I imagine I’ll be using them whenever I go into the woods.
If it ever stops snowing!
Fantastic. Thank you so much for explaining that so carefully and meaningfully. I’m so happy that you have that new tool.
I recall you have written that Lobelia cardinalis has been nearly invisible to you…. I can’t wait to read about the first time you see one blasting out at you from some green riverbank this summer!
You’re welcome Jonathan, and thank you! Yes, I have a very hard time seeing cardinal flowers and have stepped on them in the past because I didn’t see them, even though they were only inches away. I have high hopes that these glasses will change that!
This was a learning opportunity for me, and I thank you for that. The fact that you have produced so many amazing posts and photos while dealing with this issue is amazing. If only the weekend color was not white. 🌨❄️🌨
Thanks Judy. Yes, I think it has been snowing since the day the glasses came. Hopefully today’s snow will be the last of it for a while. I’m very anxious to see flowers again!
Happy day to hear you can now see in color! Our children can be so wise, can’t they?
This is a revealing and caring post; I am sending it on to a person I know who is colorblind. Thanks and enjoy the new world of color – so many delights in store for you in the coming seasons.
Thank you Ginger. Yes, children can be very wise.
I’m very happy to hear that you know someone who might benefit from this post. That’s what I was hoping!
I owned an organic full service gardening business in NH for 17 years; one of the employees was colorblind. He loved textural plants, like the sedums. We are still in touch and he is the person to whom I’ll pass along the glasses info you have provided.
Have you read Oliver Sachs’ “Island of the Colorblind”? A truly amazing, compassionate, inspiring book – highly recommend it to all.
I also used to use a lot of textural plants and I liked using different leaf sizes and shapes. I think, if your friend tries the glasses, his first word will be “amazing” just as mine was.
I haven’t read that book but it’s now on my list. I still have bookstore gift cards left from Christmas!
Congratulations! And in spite of your difficulty, you’ve always brought your photographs beautifully, colorfully alive with your words. The future is bright! Literally.
Thanks Lynne! Now if it would just stop snowing!