The world of colour vision is full of intricacies and interesting facts. At EnChroma, we want you to know everything there is to know about being colour blind. So here’s a list of some of the most fun facts we know about colour blindness.
Genetics of Colour Blindness
1. It’s estimated that there are 300 million colour blind people in the world!
2. Colour blindness is more common than you might think! 1 in 12 men is colour blind while only 1 in 200 women have the condition. This means that 95% of the colour blind community are men. 98% of those with colour blindness have red-green colour blindness.
3. Red-green colour blindness is passed down through the mother on the X-chromosome. However, there are different ways the “colour blindness gene” can show up!
4. Red-green colour blindness is common name for the two most common types called Deutan and Protan. It is given this name since red and green are the two colours that are typically most difficult to distinguish by colour blind individuals with either of these conditions.
5. Red-green colour blindness is caused by a defect in a person’s light-sensitive cone cells. The green-sensing M cone and the red-sensing L cone’s sensitivities overlap more than they would in a normally-sighted person’s eyes, which creates colour confusion across the spectrum.
6. Babies are born colour blind! As they grow, their colour vision improves and is typically fully developed by the age of 6 months.