ISHIHARA TEST

Invented in 1918 by Shinobu Ishihara, most plates show a number to those with normal color vision, while some will only appear to have numbers to those with a certain type of coloblindness, usually red-green.

Source:AmericanAcademyofOphthalmology

Types

Colorblindness comes in different severities, and is even expierienced differently by those with the same type of.

The types of colorblindness depends on which one of the three cone cells in the eye malfunction: red, green or blue. Conditions where cones stop working completely are shown here. Partial colorblindness is more common; these have the suffix -omaly instead of -opia.

Source:NationalEyeInstitute tially affects his daily routine. Moreover, Stier believes being colorblind raises her appreciation for little things that otherwise go unnoticed.

“Now that I’ve been diagnosed, I’m more cognizant of using pencils, coloring pencils and crayons,” Stier said. “I remember not wanting to use anything that wasn’t labeled. Because then I would draw with it, and it’d be a completely different color than what I expected.”

In addition to the challenges that come with colorblindness, Wells has observed people’s reactions when they find out he’s colorblind.

“Every single time I tell somebody I’m color- blind, I get the same question,” Wells said. “They point at something and immediately go, ‘What color is this?’”

Though it sometimes bothers him, Wells thinks these repetitive responses can be positive because they help spread awareness.

“It’s mostly just [a] lack of knowledge. Either [people think I] see the world in black and white or they think there’s only one type of colorblindness when there’s a wide range,” Wells said.

Stier has experienced similar reactions, and she hopes that she can help educate people on the different types of colorblindness.

“[A common misconception is] that colorblindness means that you can’t see color at all. Which in some cases, that’s a thing, but in the vast majority of people colorblindness is not that they can’t see color or that they can’t determine color,” Stier said. “You know what the colors are, you just don’t see the color the same way as other people see them. And then there’s always that little bit of dissonance between the way you try to explain how you see color and how other people are interpreting their own experiences of color.”