Color Blindness
By: ROME SMATHERS
Definiton
"Reduced ability to distinguish between certain colors."
Discovery
Color Blindness was discovered in 1794 by scientist John Dalton. He and his brother both had the genetic disorder. They discovered the mutation by comparing their vision to other peoples vision. The disorder is also known as Daltonism or color vision deficiency
How Color Blindness is inherited
Color blindness is a hereditary disorder. Color blindness is given to boys from the female parent and the male parent gives it to girls. The mutation is a chromosomal abnormality and occurs on the 23rd chromosome. The disorder is much more common in males then females.
Symptoms/Harm
Color blindness, only effects the retina of the eye. There are structures known as rods and cones in the retina that take in light. It is believed color blindness is caused by faulty rods or cones. The symptoms are confusing colors like red and green for example. The mutation causes no bodily harm, but can cause harm in other ways. For example if you are driving and mix up a red light for a green light you could get into a car crash.
Prevention/Treatment
Currently there is no cure for color blindness or anyway to prevent the genetic mutation. If it is in your family you can be born with it. You can however get treatment by wearing special glasses which counteract the effect of color blindness.
Test
The main test for color blindness is the Ishihara test. It was invented in 1917 by Dr. Ishihara of Japan. The test consists of a series of dotted plates known as Ishihara plates that have numbers on them. If you can see the dotted numbers you are not color blind but if you can't see some of them you are color blind.
Life Expectancy
People who are color blind usually live just as long as normal because it has no direct effect on health. However car accidents at stoplights sometimes reduce the lifespan of a color blind person
Normal Vision
Types of Color Blindness
There is 3 common types of colorblindness They are Deuteranopia, Protanopia, and Tritanopia
Deuteranopia
Deuteranopia is the decreased ability to see green light.
Protanopia
Protanopia is the decreased ability to see red light.
Tritanopia
Tritanopia is the decreased ability to see blue light
Chances of being colorblind
There is a 1/14 chance of being color blind if you're a boy and 1/200 chance of color blindness if you're a girl. The odds vary greatly between gender. The most common form of colorblindness is red-green color blindness, or Deuteranopia and Protanopia.
Organizations
An organization that raises color blindness awareness is the Color Blind Awareness group. The group educates about different types of the disorder and about everyday issues people with the disorder go through. They also show people what it is like to be colorblind by showing normal vision images next to simulated color blindness images.