It’s not uncommon for creative people to hit a metaphorical wall. But one day, Jake Albion, a web developer who runs his own design studio in Florida, ran into one that he couldn’t climb over.
As someone with color vision deficiency (CVD), commonly known as color blindness, Albion couldn’t visualize the subtle differences in certain red-green hues well enough to make the logo he was creating pop the way he wanted it to.
“I was so frustrated I was about to cry, and I do not get emotional about my work like that usually. But it was just knowing I couldn't make these adjustments. It made me feel not independent,” he said.
Albion’s CVD means he has trouble distinguishing between certain reds and greens. Over the years, he’s developed workarounds. Studying color theory, relying on hex codes (numbers and letters that represent colors) and using digital contrast tools have been helpful. However, he’s imagined wearing glasses that would allow him to see colors the way that most others do.
“It'd be cool one day to put on a pair of glasses and have your vision corrected. It wouldn't just be for color blindness — it's all sorts of stuff. I am optimistic that technology could do that one day,” said Albion.
The answer may not be that far off. From color-correcting lenses to the promise of smart glasses, those with color blindness may soon have more options.
Understanding color blindness
CVD impacts up to 8% of white men and about 0.5% of women in the United States. The prevalence varies, though it’s highest among men of Northern European descent.
Red-green color blindness accounts for most cases. About three-quarters of red-green cases involve difficulty perceiving green, and the remaining quarter impacts red, said James Kundart, OD, PhD, FAAO, a professor at the Pacific University College of Optometry. A rarer form, blue-yellow color vision deficiency, affects men and women equally. Complete color blindness, referred to as achromatopsia, in which a person sees only in shades of gray, does occur but is extremely rare.
Red-green color vision deficiency is inherited through the X chromosome (chromosomes contain our genetic information called DNA). Men have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome. The Y chromosome does not carry a copy of the color vision gene. If a man inherits the affected gene on his X chromosome, then he develops the condition, which can range from mild to severe.
Women have two X chromosomes, each carrying a copy of the color vision gene. If one carries the affected gene, the other typically does not. This could be why a woman usually has normal color vision but can pass the gene to her children. However, she may develop red-green color blindness herself only when both of her X chromosomes carry the affected gene, which is rare. It’s why the condition is far less common in women than in men.
Dr. Kundart noted that the condition typically skips a generation, passing from a maternal grandfather to his grandson.
CVD is usually present from birth and discovered in childhood. Pediatric optometrists like Alexandra Williamson, OD, FAAO, FCLSA who practices at the Cleveland Clinic’s Cole Eye Institute, are often the first to make a diagnosis.
"Most of the time it's identified through a school screening, where a parent or teacher is concerned that a child may have difficulty learning their colors or identifying colors compared to other people," Dr. Williamson said.
Color vision testing depends on what a child reports seeing and young children are still learning how to communicate what they perceive. That uncertainty pushes Dr. Williamson to take a second look when she suspects CVD in a young patient.
“Usually when I suspect CVD in a child, I follow up just to make sure, because the testing is all subjective and they're kids,” she said.
When a child is diagnosed, Dr. Williamson said the most important next step is to alert teachers so they can provide classroom accommodations.
CVD varies in severity. Within red-green forms, the condition ranges from mild to severe, and people with mild forms may not realize they have it for years.
"There are patients that hardly know they have it, and sometimes they won't discover it until adulthood," Dr. Kundart said. Not surprisingly, people who grow up with the condition often adapt to it more easily than someone who acquires it later in life.
What color-filtering lenses can and can't do
The most readily available technology is glasses with passive color-filtering lenses, tinted glasses that block specific wavelengths, making colors easier to distinguish. These products market themselves to those with red-green color blindness as a way to improve one’s color vision.
Whether they’re effective remains unclear and the clinical evidence for these lenses is mixed. Dr. Kundart, who has tested commercially available color-filtering lenses at Pacific University, said the results don’t support the dramatic claims that accompany the products or short-form promotional videos where people seem to unlock a dramatically new color experience.
They also present a tradeoff. Color-filtering lenses block certain wavelengths, making red and green objects easier to tell apart. However, those same lenses reduce a wearer's ability to distinguish other colors on the spectrum.
Someone with red-green color blindness might see slightly greater contrast between red and green objects, but simultaneously could lose accuracy in the blue-yellow range.
“They rob Peter to pay Paul. You can enhance the red-green color blindness, but now the person who was blue-yellow normal is going to make mistakes in the blue-yellow part of the spectrum," Dr. Kundart said.
In a 2024 study Dr. Kundart co-authored at Pacific University, only 2 of 10 participants with red-green color vision deficiency showed measurable improvement with one of the commercially available color-filtering lenses. A red filter produced significant results for several participants.
Filter lenses are engineered to block specific wavelengths in the color spectrum that create a “confusion line,” causing colors to appear identical to someone with red-green CVD. These lenses are also known as notch filters because removing wavelengths leaves a gap, or notch, in the light spectrum.
“I do appreciate them sort of optically, because that's going to be most affordable,” Dr. Kundart said. “The idea of trying to do the so-called notch filter, of filtering out the confusion lines for people that have limited pigments in the retina, to try to make it so that it separates better the pigments they can distinguish — that was worth trying. It's a good research hypothesis. It just doesn't tend to work out.”
For someone who actually tries a pair, the experience may fall short of viral video promises. Jonathan Chan is color blind and a copy editor for a marketing agency. He tried a leading commercially available color-filtering lens, saying he had expected a transformation in his ability to see a wider range of colors.
“In my mind, it'd be like The Wizard of Oz, stepping through a sepia-toned door and into a world of color,” Chan said. “Which, thinking back, is a silly thought.”
Chan said the outdoor version of the lenses added some vibrancy to his everyday vision, but the effect was modest. The lenses shifted his perception of color rather than expanding it.
Human biology limits what lenses can do, Dr. Williamson said.
“It's just going to give you a different experience than your typical day-to-day experience, but it's not going to change your cellular structure,” she said.
What smart glasses might do one day
Smart glasses introduce a new unknown into the world of color vision deficiency. Conceptually, a device powered by software or artificial intelligence could identify specific color wavelengths that a person can’t distinguish and remap them in real time.
Unlike a tinted lens, which has a fixed filtering effect, a digital system could be calibrated to the colors a person has trouble distinguishing, adjusting the view in real time. Smart glasses with cameras, software and small displays may be able to remap colors, increase contrast between confusing color pairs, highlight key color differences, or identify colors using audio or visual cues.
“Smart glasses do have an advantage in that they can identify the coordinates of a color,” Dr. Kundart said. “They can see more colors than humans can.”
Such assistance has been available, but mostly through smartphone, tablet or computer applications. A person with color vision deficiency could use smart glasses to confirm if a piece of fruit is ripe or if two items of clothing match.
The allure of smart glasses lies in using software to provide real-time vision correction. Foundational work is happening, but in very early stages.
Researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand have developed prototype glasses that use cameras to detect colors a wearer struggles to distinguish, then adjust those colors within the wearer's view through a transparent display.
University of Rochester researchers took a different approach in their 2024 study. The team developed an augmented reality (AR) smartphone app that lets users shift colors through swipe gestures. The shifting patterns can help users learn to distinguish colors that initially look confusing. In one real-world test, a participant who had difficulty telling pink construction toy blocks from gray ones was able to sort them correctly after using the app.
Smartphone apps can offer a convenient level of assistance. Color identification apps that name colors in real time through the phone's camera have been available for years. Phone accessibility settings on modern smartphones include filters that adjust display colors for different types of color vision deficiency, though those filters only affect what's on the screen.
Eyewear isn't the only frontier. Researchers are also studying gene therapy, which aims to deliver working copies of the genes responsible for color vision directly to the retina's cone cells. The approach restored color vision in colorblind monkeys more than a decade ago. Human trials are now underway for rarer, more severe inherited conditions such as achromatopsia. For the common forms of red-green deficiency, however, gene therapy remains experimental.
What to ask your eye doctor
Anyone who suspects color vision deficiency can visit an eye doctor for testing, diagnosis and a management plan. Dr. Williamson recommends that a child has a comprehensive eye exam before starting kindergarten, with regular exams after that.
Adults who suspect they may have a congenital color vision deficiency but have never been formally tested can request color vision testing as part of a comprehensive eye exam. However, not all color deficiency is inherited. Color vision can also change later in life from certain eye or systemic conditions, aging or medications (such as chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, ethambutol or digoxin). A new or worsening change, rather than one present since childhood, is worth getting checked by an eye doctor.
A specific diagnosis and determination of one’s CVD severity are essential for an eye doctor or occupational therapist (OT) to recommend strategies. Even a filter that provides a modest improvement, for example, may not be effective for someone with a more severe form of deficiency.
Color vision can also matter for certain careers. Some safety-sensitive fields — including commercial aviation, parts of the military, some transportation and emergency-services roles — set minimum color vision standards. People sometimes train for years before discovering a deficiency affects their eligibility. It's worth knowing that color-correcting glasses or lenses generally do not allow someone to pass official occupational color vision testing, and using them for that purpose may not be permitted. An eye doctor can clarify the type and severity of a deficiency
Before buying any color vision technology, Dr. Kundart suggests patients ask their eye doctor what improvements to expect based on the technology along with the type and severity of their color vision deficiency.
Experts and those with color vision deficiency stressed that having this condition isn’t always a negative. Getting a diagnosis doesn’t necessarily require treatment.
“A person who experiences CVD should probably not be labeled as ‘deficient,’" Dr. Williamson said. “They’re just experiencing color vision in a different way than someone who doesn’t have the same phenotype (genetic expression) as someone with CVD.”
There could be some advantages. For example, most people have three types of color-sensing cells, called cones, in their eyes. Women who carry the gene for red-green color blindness may have a fourth cone type. Researchers have explored whether this could let some of them perceive subtle color distinctions most people can't — though so far this "tetrachromacy" has been confirmed in only a small number of people.
"There's a reason it exists in the population," Dr. Kundart said. "Maybe we shouldn't be so eager to erase it from the face of the earth."
Albion’s grandfather, who was also color blind, had a similar take.
“The color is what you make it,” he said.
