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17 Ellul 5761 - September 5, 2001 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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Home and Family
Color Blindness -- and Judging Favorably!
by A. Ross

"No such thing as a green dog..."

Part II

About five years ago, an optician in England claimed that he had found a remedy for color blindness. Not a cure, of course, but a remedy. He didn't know why or how it worked, but it seemed to be effective. He developed his idea and began to sell tinted contact lenses to enthusiastic customers. Suddenly, the world came alive for them. About 80% of those who tried them decided to buy them and of those, seven out of ten found there was a signifcant change in what they saw. One of these first customers was initially fitted with a red lens, which made people think he had an eye infection. Now he wears light colored amethyst (bluish violet) lenses for the night and darker ones by day, and says his world is suddenly a much brighter one.

The attitude of opticians is negative about this contact lens system and the minority who have heard about it do not promote it because the colored lenses do not fit in with the accepted knowledge of how color sight works. As Harris, the manufacturing optician says, he himself also does not know how it works, but he feels it is effective. Besides which, the relatively few (in proportion to the thousands of color blind members of the population) satisfied customers who have finely tinted contact lenses tuned to their particular form of color blindness say they enjoy seeing color the way most people see it!

Many color blind people, although not all of them, have an aversion to bright light. I did not know this when my own daughter was small, nor as a matter of fact did I realize at that stage that she was color blind. Sunglasses are an obvious solution to that problem. If a child has a definite aversion to bright sunlight, it may be an indication of color blindness. To compensate for this, they often have better night vision than other people. One further advantage that color blind people have over others is that camouflage does not fool them in the least. In the army, or in tracking someone or something, a color blind person is in demand.

Normal sighted people have difficulty in distinguishing colors by night. Color blind people always have difficulty. They have been told that grass is green and the soil next to it is brown, but they do not perceive it. After some years, they discover that there is no such thing as a green dog and they learn that no man ever sports a green beard.

Directions in workbooks are very confusing to color blind children. A child is instructed to draw a line to the red ball. But the other two balls are also red, as far as he can see. Sometimes he guesses right and sometimes this perfectly normal and intelligent child draws a line to the brown or green ball.

Newspapers printed especially for children are often impossible for color blind children to read. If it is blue print on a purple background, for example, the letters are indistinguishable. Black print on a green background or on a red background is also difficult for some types of color blindness.

A passenger finds his suitcase has not arrived. He goes to claim it and is asked what color the case is. He has no idea because he does not identify it by its color. He can describe the size and the make and the blue strap which he tied around it for extra identification but the girl behind the desk asks impatiently for the actual color of the case. He says it is black, but as a matter of fact, it is maroon!

Most color blind children can identify pure primary colors. They have problems with different shades and tints.

A teacher might say, "Bring me the red book from the table." The child runs to the table and stands there, sucking his finger. There are many books on the table and he doesn't know which one is red.

A boy doing his mother's shopping meets a neighbor in the supermarket. The neighbor kindly offers to take the boy home, and as he still has some shopping to do, he gives the boy the car keys, and tells him to put the groceries in and wait for him in the car. "You'll recognize the red Volvo on the right hand side of the parking lot." Unfortunately, the boy does not recognize the red Volvo, and has never memorized the registration number. An irate shopper catches him attempting to insert the key into her pale green car.

All the above are true stories and real examples of the difficulties people with color deficiency experience.

Many people go through life without ever realizing that they are color blind. Parents who know there is a history of color blindness in the family will be on the lookout for the deficiency to reappear in their sons. But there are hundreds of people who are unaware of the `affliction', if it is one. It is certainly one for an erudite yeshiva bochur who intends to become a dayan. Especially if he has grown up not realizing that he cannot really tell the difference of various shades and colors.

A boy of 11, the youngest of a very large family, was brought to me recently with some problem. During a routine assessment, I realized that he was color blind. When I pointed this out to the mother, she was most indignant. She claimed that he knew colors perfectly well, but was just not interested in them. She then added that none of her sons had ever really bothered with mastering colors, but that the girls were `artistic'. It seems that all the boys in the family, including the three married ones, are color blind and do not know about it! Their maternal grandfather was in all likelihood color blind, too.

In Conclusion

Mothers should mark pencil crayons once a child can read, and show them which to use for faces and which to use for the sky etc. Intelligent children who are aware of the problem they have, often ask their neighbors. [Crayolas have the names of the colors printed on them.]

When mothers send their color deficient children off to yeshivas or seminaries, if they give them thread for emergency sewing, they should mark it. [How about buying a dozen pairs of identical socks to avoid matching problems?]

Teachers should use white chalk on the board and make allowances for children who seem to fail in every color coded task. Some public spirited person should make bus companies aware of the fact that red numbers on a black background on the front of buses are invisible to quite a large minority of passengers. Black on white are the safest colors.

If you notice someone making a ridiculous mistake, give him the benefit of the doubt. He may easily be color blind.

 

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