Classic signs that a child may have
CVD include:
• using inappropriate colours in artwork
• low attention span when colouring in
• struggling to identify colours with red
or green in them (such as purple or
brown)
• sensitivity to bright light
If you suspect your child might have
CVD, discuss your concerns with an
ophthalmologist or optometrist, who
will be able to test for colour vision. The
most common test used to detect red/
green colour blindness is the Ishihara
plate test, where you are shown a series
of discs containing dots of different
colours. Some of the dots form numbers
(or shapes for children who have not
yet learnt their numbers) – people
with CVDmay not be able to see the
numbers or pictures.
Getting a diagnosis
that people with CVD can see. Some
schools let pupils use apps like these,
such as iDaltonizer, to help them
differentiate between colours, which
can be useful for looking at geography
atlases, or for studying graphs and
charts. Specially designed tinted
contact lenses or glasses also exist to
help wearers differentiate between
colours, although reports of their
efficacy vary.
Career counsel
A child’s colour blindness may
also have a bearing on his future,
as certain professions where
distinguishing between colours can
be a safety issue (such as the airline
industry or many engineering or
electrician roles), may be impossible
to pursue. Early diagnosis and
relevant careers advice can be
invaluable in managing expectations.
Paula explains, “If you know early,
you can prepare for it. My uncle
wanted to be a policeman, and
was told that he couldn’t and was
devastated. The earlier you know, you
can steer them away from professions
they won’t be able to do.”
But that does not mean that colour
blindness is a barrier to every career
where colour plays a large role. There
are colour-blind artists (there are
suggestions that Van Gogh was colour
blind), art teachers, graphic designers
and fashion designers.
And for most children with
CVD, their number-one gripe is not
about possible limitations to their
career far into their unimaginable
future, but more about an experience
that can happen to all people with
CVD on an almost-daily basis. Paula
explains, “Tom says it’s annoying
when he mentions his colour blindness
to the teacher as everyone in class
‘tests’ him by saying ‘What colour is
that?’ and ‘Do you see in black and
white?’, which he finds irritating!”
Comments and “testing” from
classmates aside, children with
CVD have to continually compensate
for their impaired colour vision. They
have to keep translating what they
actually see into what they think other
people see, and then make sense of it
for themselves. School brings enough
challenges and for a colour blind
child, trying to achieve a physically
impossible task such as reading a pie-
chart filled with similar-looking
murky green shading with no-one to
help, shouldn’t be one of them.
December 2013
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