Buzz
Living with colorblindness presents numerous challenges: career restrictions like being unable to fly planes, relying on others for color coordination, and difficulty distinguishing traffic signals from a distance. Yet, the most persistent annoyance is answering questions such as, 'How does your vision differ from mine?'
This is a question I’ve faced countless times, often accompanied by impromptu tests of my ability to identify colors. While I’ve reluctantly participated in these tests, I’ve never been able to fully explain how my perception of the world differs. That changed recently.
This revelation, to phrase it poetically—and yes, I’ve just witnessed pink for the first time, so a touch of euphoria is justified—was made possible by color-correcting glasses from En Chroma.
Michael Arbeiter (left) and a friend. Photo by Alexandra Breines.
UNDERSTANDING COLORBLINDNESS: WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
A widespread myth is that colorblindness stems from a lack of rod and cone cells in the eye. In reality, only cones are involved, and the problem isn’t their number—even those with severe colorblindness have the usual 6 to 7 million—but rather how these cells function.
Every cone cell contains molecules known as photopigments, which capture light particles, or photons, enabling color perception. In a typical eye, cones are divided into three types, each detecting specific light wavelengths: L-cones detect long wavelengths, primarily red; M-cones detect medium wavelengths, mainly green; and S-cones detect short wavelengths, mostly blue. The myriad combinations of these wavelengths, varying in intensity, create the millions of colors an average person sees throughout their life—or even in a single day.
In individuals with colorblindness, cones struggle to differentiate light wavelengths effectively. For most, the issue arises from excessive overlap in how cones absorb wavelengths. For instance, if an L-cone absorbs too much green light or an M-cone too much red, the eye struggles to tell these colors apart. This leads to challenges like identifying specific colors and distinguishing between differently colored objects.
In rare instances, individuals with severe colorblindness may have cones that entirely fail to detect specific color wavelengths. However, in my situation—and for 80 percent of colorblind people—the condition is less severe and can be addressed with modern technology. En Chroma glasses use specialized lenses to enhance the eye’s ability to differentiate between, for example, long- and medium-wavelength light, allowing for clearer and more vibrant distinctions between greens and reds.
FROM MISSING GREENS TO VIBRANT PINKS
After completing a colorblindness test on En Chroma’s website, I discovered their glasses could help me. Similar to other tests I’ve taken, it involved a series of slides with circles of varying colors forming hidden numbers. The difficulty of identifying these numbers varied with each slide. After multiple attempts, my results indicated moderate to extreme red-green colorblindness, specifically a type En Chroma labels as “deutan” (derived from deuteranopia, a condition affecting green photoreceptors).
Enchroma.com
Though it sounds like a term from a sci-fi novel, “deutan” refers to those with irregularities in their M-cones. While exploring the website, I also learned about “protan” (stemming from protanopia), a red-green colorblindness linked to L-cone abnormalities. While protans can also benefit from En Chroma glasses, the site emphasized that the most noticeable and immediate improvements are seen in moderate to strong deutan users. Intrigued, I decided to try them out.
In the end, the glasses did more than just improve my ability to distinguish greens from reds; they unveiled entirely new hues. I could see a spectrum of colors on a single leaf, a sunlit cloud standing out against the blue sky, and, in a neighbor’s garden, my first true encounter with pink, which radiated vividly from every flower petal.
Photo by Alexandra Breines.
Not everything changed when I wore the glasses. Some floral arrangements, t-shirts, or graffiti murals remained challenging to interpret or appeared unchanged from my unaided vision. However, there were plenty of moments to cherish. Alongside my newfound appreciation for pink, a standout moment was seeing the distinct green, yellow, and red of a traffic light for the first time. Previously, it had always appeared as one white light and two nearly identical orange blobs.
"HOW IS WHAT YOU SEE DIFFERENT FROM WHAT I SEE?"
The greatest benefit is that I can now finally answer that question—because I can truly see the difference. So, to every friend, classmate, and coworker who has ever asked: here’s my response.
The next time you gaze at a rose, a sunset, or a green traffic sign, picture it dulled, as though viewed through several layers of a colorless fog. The result would be an object with far less brilliance and vibrancy—less alive, in essence—and also less distinct. It would lack subtle details like shading, appearing as a single, indistinct tone. You might not even be able to determine its intended color. In fact, the color might depend on such precise wavelengths that, without the glasses, I could never perceive it at all.
Yes, that might sound disappointing. (Now that I understand what I’ve been missing, my vision deficiency feels more disheartening than I ever imagined.) However, there’s hope: the technology behind these lenses is constantly improving. Alongside En Chroma, numerous companies are creating glasses, contact lenses, cameras, apps, video games, and other digital tools to assist the 280 million men and 1.7 million women worldwide living with some form of colorblindness. Researchers are also exploring ways to adapt streetlights, public maps, key cards, and household electronics to better support those with color vision deficiencies. Perhaps one day, there will be no difference between what you see and what I see.
