What Is Colour-blindness?

Colour-blindness is the inability to process the difference between colours that other people can perceive. Everyone is born colour-blind, but as we develop our eyesight adjusts correctly. For a few people however, this process fails to happen. Colour-blindness is usually genetic but can also occur if a person has eye or brain damage or has been exposed to certain chemicals. However, colour-blinded people can have advantages over people with normal colour vision. There is evidence that colour blind people are better at seeing things in the dark than normal colour vision people. In the United States, about 10 million men (about 7% of the population) cannot distinguish the colour red from green, making them colour-blind. Many migraine sufferers are also colour-blind.
It has been found that isolated communities often produce high percentages of colour-blinded people, so rural areas such as Finland, Hungry and some of the Scottish islands suffer a higher percentage than well-populated areas. Although colour-blindness is a disability, most sufferers cope well in the modern world without any problems. There is no known cure for colour-blindness, however, sufferers can have specially tinted lenses fitted to enable them to distinguish colours better.

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