Colour vision deficiency is the inability of an individual to perceive colours. It occurs in different degrees depending on how much colour perception is deficient. Colour perception adds beauty to vision and improves quality of vision.

Colour is essential in medicine, pharmaceuticals, finances, beauty, fashion, agriculture, and transportation. In pharmaceuticals, for example, medications are coded in colours, a pharmacist could tell which capsule is an antibiotic amid other capsules through colour observation.

TYPES OF COLOUR BLINDNESS

Achromatopsia

This type of colour blindness prevents an individual from seeing colours except for black and white/grey. It could be a partial or complete absence of colour perception.

Tritanopia

Tritanopia is a rare type of genetic colour blindness that affects a person’s ability to distinguish between the colours blue and yellow.

Deuteranopia

This is known as red-green colour blindness, and it is the most common type of colour deficiency. It is most likely a congenital condition, meaning that the sufferer is born with it.

Protanopia

This is the inability of an individual to identify red colour, also called red colour blindness.

Chromatopsia

This is hypersensitivity to colour. A condition whereby an individual sees a colourless object as coloured.

CAUSES OF COLOUR BLINDNESS

There are different factors responsible for colour blindness among which are.

Hereditary: Absence of total or partial colour perception is congenital.

Chemical exposure to chemicals

Continuous exposure to some chemicals can induce colour blindness over time example of such a chemical is carbon disulphide which is found in fertilizers.

Diseases

Colour blindness can be caused by certain conditions such as Optic Neuritis, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, macular degeneration, glaucoma, and diabetes mellitus.

Age

The older people are the less colour-sensitive the eyes are. Although, this varies in individuals, the degree of sensitive decreases with age.

CONCLUSION

An essential activity like driving requires a person to have excellent colour vision in order not to endanger themselves and other road users. Therefore, it is very necessary and important for every adult to pass a colour vision test before being issued a driver's license. Colour blindness is a lifelong vision condition except for the ones caused by diseases which may reversed when the underlying condition is treated, or the causative agents such as chemical exposures are reduced. However, people with colour blindness can adapt and still live normally although with some difficulties at the earlier stages.