Do you need a colour vision test?

Can’t tell red from blue? Did your mother have colour blindness? Here’s what to know about colour blindness and whether you need a colour vision test.

Just as it sounds, colour blindness is a condition where you can’t tell certain colours apart. The condition stems from lacking a colour-sensitive pigment in your retinas at the backs of your eyes. People who are colour blind may have trouble seeing red, green, blue or any combination of those colours. (Rarely, a person doesn’t see any colours at all.)

Appearing more in males than females, it’s often a condition that can run in families (many are born with it) or it’s caused by damage to the retinal or optic nerves. You can also develop acquired coloured vision problems, which can come with aging, diseases (such as glaucoma or cataracts), an injury or from taking a certain medication.

Physicians can administer colour vision tests to see if you can tell certain colours apart. Not only is this used in diagnosis, but employers might use it for job positions where discerning colours from one another is critical—think law enforcement or the military. The tests only help diagnose the issue. From there you should chat with your physician to see if there’s anything you can do about the condition.

There are two common tests to help diagnose colour blindness. In the first test, you may look at a grouping of coloured dots and see a pattern or image in them, such as a letter or number. The patterns help your physician determine which colours you have trouble seeing; however, if you sense you have an undiagnosed problem with colour blindness, there are tests you can take online to get a sense of whether you struggle defining colours or not.

Another test involves putting a series of coloured chips in order to group the colours together. Those who have issues with colour vision won’t be able to arrange the chips in the proper order.

If you’ve inherited the condition, unfortunately,it can’t be treated. And for the most common type of colour blindness—the red-green colour deficiency— here’s no treatment available either, because it’s believed you won’t have trouble functioning.

If it’s related to a condition, the issue may be fixable—if you can’t differentiate colours from one another because of an issue with cataracts, for example, the cataracts can be removed and colour vision restored.

Other treatment ideas might include:

• Wearing coloured contact lenses to help you see differences between colours.
• Wearing glare-blocking glasses— hen there’s less glare and brightness, it’s easier to see differences between colours.