I am a deuteranope. I confess it. There is a 50% chance that my three sisters carry this sex-linked affliction, and at least one of my nephews is already showing signs of this malady.
Color deficiency is common in Canada, affecting11% of Canadian men and about 1% of women. So what, you may ask, is the big deal about lacking one of the three retinal color pigments and being unable to see reds and greens? Very well, let me enlighten you.
Have you ever considered the social consequences of wearing mismatched socks and a lime-green shirt with rust-colored pants? An instant reputation as an eccentric ensures. (“He must take after his uncle Lester. HE used to wear the same weird clothes, you know.”)
It is time to end discrimination against the chromatically challenged!
I believe my first inkling that I was different was in Grade 5 French. My teacher must have thought I had a strange sense of humor when I confidently asserted that green was brown or purple was blue. At least the dear soul never marked me down, as long as I made a fool of myself in grammatically correct francais.
In junior high school I had my first encounter with pseudo-isochromatic plates — you know, those funny-colored dot pictures that had numbers that everyone else could see except me.
This always engendered a great deal of curiosity among my classmates who would start quizzing me, “What color is this?” and “What color is that?” People would then laugh uproariously when I misidentified pink as beige or purple as blue.
Some colors I just did not know. My cousin Paul, my mother’s oldest sister’s son, used to tell people everything was purple until they left him alone.
Some things can be problematic, but traffic lights, thankfully, are not one of them. Bright, monochromatic tones of red and green can usually be seen, though at about 10% of the normal intensity. Besides, anyone, even if completely color blind (very rare) can tell if the upper or lower light is lit.
Clothing choices are another kettle of fish. Pastels, tones and less-intense shades of reds and greens are easily confused. My advice would be to bribe a non-deuteranope friend to help out, or cultivate the favor of a sales clerk at Tip Top or Moore’s (do not ever get them mad, though, or retribution will be swift and merciless.)
Another warning: do not under any circumstances decorate your own home unless you wish to render it unmarketable. You may find that lovely subdued wallpaper is garish purple, or your bargain-priced carpet is actually a nauseating pink.
There are some advantages to being color deficient. It is much easier to get a job as a camouflage spotter in the air force, since colors do not distract you from seeing underlying form. This gave many of my deuteranopic comrades the privilege of flying low over enemy territory for hours at a time during recent wars.
Forget it, though, if you want to repair telephones (color-coded wires), fly commercially (color-coded signal lights) or drive a truck (this one I’m not sure of, but perhaps some non-deuteranope figures it would be a little more serious if an 18-wheeler happened to miss that red light). Since those careers were out, I decided to enter a field which had no “color barrier” and applied to medical school.
That’s not to say it didn’t affect medical practice. I had to use my ingenuity when diagnosing ear infections, relying on changes in reflectivity and architecture in the ear drum. Rashes could be problematic also. (Yes, Mrs. Smith, that’s an awful rash on your bottom.” “But it’s on my arms, doctor.”)
Historically, I suspect certain artists may have been red-green deficient. Since we see blues and yellows much more intensely, they would be more likely to use these pigments. Maxfield Parrish’s art deco ladies and exotic landscapes use these colors in large quantities, making me think this artist may have been affected.
It is a bit sad to think that I’ll never be able to full appreciate the colors in a sunset, the green of the grass after a spring rain, or the tints of the autumn leaves. A minor tragedy, but a tragedy nonetheless.
One final word of advice to all deuteranopes. Before choosing a spouse, administer a color vision test. If your partner is affected, all your kids will be color blind.
On the other hand, if we could reproduce ourselves in sufficient number we could form a powerful political lobby group. We could change traffic lights to blue and yellow, and outlaw reds and greens in public buildings. Clashing colors and odd socks could become de rigueur in fashionable society.
The possibilities are endless.
Photo Credit
“Four Paint Colours” from http://www.colour-blindness.com
This piece previously appeared in The Medical Post.
When my son was about two and a half, I began to suspect that he had color blindness. I did some research, and did some online tests with him which all indicated that he was red-green colorblind. When he was in kindergarten, I asked the school nurse to administer a test. She confirmed that I was correct.
I was under the impression, however, that it was a male gene. But when I found out that my biological father, was color blind, I realize that trait came from me!
When he was about 5, I corrected his choice of colors in a picture he made, he confidently stated, “You see the world your way, and I see the world mine!” we have embraced that statement in our family wholeheartedly.
My deuteranope son is now 8 years old. He is a budding artist. Although he chooses the comic book style and pen and ink drawings over using watercolors or painting, his creativity is boundless.
Your son has a unique perspective on the world and I admire his determination!
Sorry I am 33% protanopia, 13% deuteranopia, 67% tritanomaly. 100% is perfect color vision and I would not , “Before choosing a spouse, administer a color vision test. If your partner is affected, all your kids will be color blind.” do that. Also why not say don’t choose a spouse because of their skin, hair, eye or any color. Genetic diversity is the name of the game. Big fish in a small pond means problems over time. Look at the British Royal family, or West Virginia.(LOL) Also liked your article BTY
Anthony
I would like to ask about other areas of your visual ablility, have you ever tested them? Are you stereoblind or stereo acuite, for example, what is your visual acuity?
“Some things can be problematic, but traffic lights, thankfully, are not one of them. Bright, monochromatic tones of red and green can usually be seen, though at about 10% of the normal intensity. Besides, anyone, even if completely color blind (very rare) can tell if the upper or lower light is lit.”
Relying on position to distinguish traffic light requires a lot of thinking and the relation between location and meaning, such as between top and stop and bottom and go, is a weak one, the distance at which you can see the position wloud depend on your visual acuity, in case of 20/20 vision it is the distance and which the positions correspond to one arc minute. If all other components of visual ability ar equal, then I believe that colour vision would affect overal ablity to perceive the situation, not just the ablity to read traffic light, it may affect the probability of noticing certain colour cars for example.
I believe that many jobs that requrie you to see colour also require you to see fine detail, and cones are needed to see both, so there are two reasons why monochomats are excluded from them.
“There are some advantages to being color deficient. It is much easier to get a job as a camouflage spotter in the air force, since colors do not distract you from seeing underlying form.”
This is where the distinction between blindness and weakness to a colour* (such as between Deuteranomaly and Deuteranopia) is very important. When you think about what cases Deuteranomaly, you wolud think they distinguish colours that look alike to most of us, and it has been shown that Deuteranomalates are better at distinguishing shades of khaki.
Now dichromats may have better night vision than trichromats (normal or anomalous).
*Yes I realive that the latter is quite common.
As a fellow Deuteranope I can fully relate to George. 99.9999% of the time when someone finds out I’m colorblind the next thing they say is “what color is…”. After 20 some years of that it becomes rather old. As far as making sure your future wife is not colorblind so your kids aren’t, thats not true. You want to make sure your future wife’s father is not colorblind. Colorblindness is carried by the women and given to their son(s) who’s daughters will carry the trait, and so on. I learned this the hard way, as my wife is not color-blind but she carries the color-blindness gene. So our son(s) will likely be colorblind, and our daughter(s) will likely carry the gene (thanks to me). In regards to traffic lights not being a problem, single flashing lights (used in rural areas in lieu of a traffic light) that flash either amber or red cause all kinds of problems for me!
Actually I said that if you and your wife were both color blind then ALL of your kids would be color blind since she would carry color blindness on both of her X chromosomes so there are no normal X chromosomes in the mix. If she merely carries one X with the color blindness gene she will not be color blind and half hour your kids will have normal color vision but half will be color blind.
You are right about flashing red versus flashing amber by the way. Impossible.