Colour blindness runs in our family

My father was not colour blind

Though my brother is, but not his son.

Just one of my two sons has it, and both of my sisters’ boys have it, one more pronounced than the other.

Looking at the chart below it seems both my sister and I are carriers of the CVD gene.

With this condition, the gene is passed from the parent to the child on the X chromosome. Globally, 1 in 12 males and 1 in 200 females have colour blindness

If you have colour blindness (colour vision deficiency), it means you see colours differently. Most of the time, colour vision deficiency makes it hard to tell the difference between certain colors.

It’s hard to imagine being unable to see colours isn’t it?

My son tells me everything looks very drab, his colour blindness is on the red-green spectrum, so in his eyes the landscape looks brown.

There are glasses which can help. My son has a pair though he doesn’t wear them very often. I tried them and in my eyes all the colours seemed almost neon bright

There are many careers which restrict colour blind people, most especially when coloured sight is needed, obviously it is a safety problem.

My nephew’s dream was to become a pilot.

In the circles (above) which colours can you see clearly, and which ones blend together?

5 thoughts on “Colour Blindness

  1. My father-in-law is colorblind, quite distinctly. I knew about this genetic problem, prevalent in men, but he’s the first person whom I could ask questions. It makes sense he strongly dislikes the color Brown.
    Your chart how the genes distribute is very helpful. I guess my in-law family got “lucky” as there are no children from their daughter.

  2. Thanks, Janine for sharing … and while I don’t have a problem with colour/sight, I do know a number of friends (men) who do. Time to do a bit of study.

  3. This could be my son’s story! Yes passed down through the female. I have 2 brothers who are colour blind as well. My son wanted to be a pilot but alas no however he can be a doctor! Our other son knows all the colours and shades.

      1. My Father was colour blind as well as a few nephews. My Dad once painted the shingles on the house pink. He thought it was a nice shade of brown. My Mother and the neighbours loved it, especially as my Father was a beautiful gardener and never worried about planting flowers in groups of like colours.

Tell us what you think.