­

Hello. My name is David, and I’m colorblind.

That’s right: I’m among the 8 percent of all males (one in 12) who see less red and green pigment than everyone else. (Technically speaking, red and green “sensors” in our eyes overlap, making those colors tough to distinguish.)

Here are some of the well-meaning but misguided questions colorblind people get asked a lot:

“So does everything look like a black-and-white TV to you?” (Answer: “Colorblind” doesn’t mean you see everything in black and white; in most cases, it just means that you see less red and green. So it’s hard to tell blue apart from purple, or to tell green apart from brown, or to detect any color at all in very light shades.)



(Answer: “Colorblind” doesn’t mean you see everything in black and white; in most cases, it just means that you see less red and green. So it’s hard to tell blue apart from purple, or to tell green apart from brown, or to detect any color at all in very light shades.) “What color is the sky?” (Answer: Blue.)



(Answer: Blue.) “How do you know when to go at a traffic light?” (Answer: To me, the “green” light of a traffic light looks perfectly white — but it’s still on the bottom, so, yes, I know when to go.)

If it’s any help, here’s what fall foliage looks like to a colorblind person:

View photos

And here’s what it looks like to everyone else:



View photos

To me, the pictures look exactly the same.

EnChroma sunglasses

A few years ago, I discovered that a company called EnChroma had developed sunglasses for colorblind people that it claimed would make those missing colors visible. I couldn’t wait to see if they could work for me.

View photos

So I tried them out. This is what I wrote at the time:

I was surprised to read some of the disclaimers. First, they’re sunglasses. They don’t work indoors unless the light is very bright. Second, they’re not designed for use with a computer screen.

And, weirdly enough, these glasses won’t help you pass the standard Ishihara colorblindness test, the one in which you try to see a number composed of hundreds of dots in a circular test pattern. In any case, I took them outside on a sunny day — and was floored. I mean, I had a visceral reaction to what I saw. Colors I see just fine — blues, yellows, oranges — looked exactly the same. But all of a sudden, greens and reds looked richer. It’s almost impossible to describe in words. In fact, it’s impossible for normal-vision people to understand, even by wearing them, because they don’t see anything different with the EnChroma glasses on. But an old brown Vermont barn roof was revealed, quite clearly, to be salmon red. Yards full of leafy trees and plants suddenly had different shades of green. Everywhere I looked, desaturated or barely discernible red things were popping. The highlight came on day four of my tests, when my kids discovered a rainbow arcing across the sky, pointing and exclaiming. I looked. With my own eyes, I could barely see it. Maybe there was a soft arc of yellow, but that was it. Then I put on the glasses. Unbelievable! Now I saw two entire additional color bands, above and below the yellow arc. It was suddenly a complete rainbow. I don’t mind admitting, I felt a surge of emotion. It was like a peek into a world I knew existed but had never been allowed to see.

EnChroma updates

Well, that was almost three years ago. Since that time, a lot has happened.

First, the public began to discover EnChroma glasses. We began to see videos like this one, showing colorblind people falling apart emotionally when they see full color for the first time.

Second, EnChroma has branched out, expanding its styles and offerings. Now there are 20 different frame types, plus interchangeable-lens models and even custom lenses to fit your existing frames.

There’s also now a lens specifically for use indoors — when looking at a computer screen, for example. The lenses use the same technology, just a lot less of it; they’re barely tinted.

Story continues