Colorblind Facts

• Most color impaired can see all colors. Very few color blind people can only see in black in white (less than 1%).
• Color blindness is the inability to perceive differences between some colors that other people can distinguish.
• It is most often of genetic nature, but might also occur because of eye, nerve or brain damage or due to use of some chemical substances.
• 5%-8% of men and 0.5% of women are colorblind.
• A color-defective male always inherits his deficiency from his mother, the mother however is not colorblind
• The defect of color vision that is characterized by the inability to see the color red is called protanopia.
• Bulls are actually colorblind, it is the motion of a red cape which angers them, not the color itself.
• In World War II, colorblind men were sent on special missions, because their decreased ability to see green led to an increased ability to see through or detect camouflage.
• Famous Colorblind People: Mr. Rogers ,John Dalton (developed theory of atomic structure), Samuel Clemens a.k.a. Mark Twain, Paul Newman, Michael Lee Aday a.k.a singer Meat Loaf, Jack Nicklaus (golfer), Bing Cosby (singer), Matt Laurer (TV), Bob Dole (politician)
• Everyone is colorblind at birth
• Emerson Moser, who was Crayola's senior crayon maker revealed upon his retirement that he was blue-green colorblind and could not see all the colors!
• Most colorblind people get tired of the "What color is this" questions from their peers by age 13.

External Links:
• Dr. Greene A good explanation of colorblindness
• Kidshealth Color Blindness in kids terms
• CNN News story: "New eyeglasses designed to help people with colorblindness" April 21, 2000
• The Island of the Colorblind and Cycad Book about the Pingelap where all the natives are born color-blind
• Color blindness on Wikipedia
• Humor: Sean Flannery and his disability (video)