Colour Blindness 

How important is colour vision?

Accurate colour vision is essential for effective colour communication, especially for people who work / study in industries / courses involved in designing, inspecting or formulating materials requiring colour discrimination.

Colour blind people can still see colour. Formal testing can evaluate the type and extent of colour blindness

Colour blindness is not a form of blindness at all, but a deficiency in the way you see colour. With colour blindness, you may have difficulty distinguishing certain colours, such as blue and yellow or red and green. Complete colour blindness (where everything appears black / white / shades of grey), fortunately, is a very rare form of colour blindness. Congenital red green colour vision deficiency is the most common, affecting 7-10% of males worldwide.

How is colour vision evaluated?

The Farnsworth-Munsell 100 Hue Colour Vision Test is an easy to administer, comprehensive evaluation of the extent to which you can discern between specific colours and slight hue variations within a certain colour. This test checks your colour acuity across the visible spectrum of colour, which is essential for anyone evaluating or communicating colour. Occasionally, it may be used to differentiate between congenital and acquired forms of colour blindness, or to monitor the effects on colour vision while on certain types of medical treatment.

Under what circumstances would defective colour vision pose a handicap and / or result in significant consequences due to errors of colour judgement?

People who work in certain industries such as:

·         Air force / Navy / Army / Police (certain grades)

·         Civil aviation

·         Colour matcher in dyeing / textiles / paints / cosmetic

·         Electrical work

·         Navigation (pilot / boatman / rail worker)  

require perfect colour vision.

In addition, colour vision deficiencies in chemists / pharmacists / scientists / laboratory analysts may pose a hazard at work. Therefore, it is imperative for such individuals to get their colour vision tested or their colour deficiency quantified.