Dear LPG,

Did you know that today is national colour blind awareness day?  I suppose that we older members of society can say that, colour blind or not, we have lived with the way we see for quite a long time now and got through to the other side…

I was taking a look at the internet the other morning and came across this fact.  Approximately one in 12 men are colour blind while only one in 200 ladies are found to be afflicted in this way? 

I suppose that this means that most of us know someone who is unable to distinguish colour to some extent, even if we are not affected ourselves.  

I suppose that, when we look at the big picture, being colour-blind is not up there as a major debilitating state of ill-health but it is not without its problems.  I have a friend who had to give up his ambition to be an electrician because there are so many different coloured wires involved and I remember dismissing his disappointment back then without really taking the time to understand what a problem it can really be. 

I am now an octogenarian and I had to be in my mid 30s when we got our first colour television, and I suppose that being colour blind is much like seeing the world in shades of the black and white we were all used to back then. 

Another thing that I learned is that there are different sorts of colour blindness.  Some people have no problem with distinguishing one shade of red from another while greens, oranges or blue shades might give others problems.  I suppose that it is rather like being partially colour blind.   

I found some interesting facts on the subject including the fact that there are corrective glasses that can sometimes help and also thought on this national colour blind awareness day it might be interesting to have a go at some of the online tests I found which are designed to give an idea of just what it is to be a little colour blind.

VI, Croydon.

VI shared some online tests designed to flag up any colour blindness you may have experienced over the years without realising and challenges readers to have a go…

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LPG has found some information on colour blindness and the day that has been set aside to heighten its awareness

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