Color Blindness and Testing in Children Essay -- Vision Sight Disorder

Color Blindness and Testing in Children In a world of many technological advances, color perception has become a very important issue. One of the main advances pertains to color technology. An increased emphasis on color technology has raised awareness of the issue of color blindness. Many people are not aware of the origins of color blindness and the different types, although many people are affected by it. One in two hundred females have this defect while in males the defect occurs in one and twelve ( Lewis, Reitzammer & Amos, 1990). That is about two percent of the female and eight percent of male populations (Sewell, 1983). It is important to look at the prevalence of colorblindness in children and identify the problems associated with it. Color deficiencies can take many forms but are generally grouped together and known as colorblindness. The different types of color blindness include protanopia, deuteranopia, and tritanopia. Individuals with protanopia perceive short-wavelength light as blue, and when the wavelength is increased, the blue becomes less and less clear until it is perceived as gray at 492 nm (Goldstein, 1999). Deuteranopia causes a person to perceive blue at short wavelengths and see yellow at long wavelengths with a neutral point at 498 nm. The most rare form of color blindness is tritanopia. These individuals perceive blue at short wavelengths and perceive red at long wavelengths with a neutral point at 570 nm (Goldstein, 1999). Protanopia and deuteranopia are commonly referred to as red-green blindness. These forms of colorblindness are sex linked; the gene responsible is on the X-chromosome, with the dominant gene passed by the mother. With the female (XX), the anomalous locus on one X chromosome.. . ... Psychology, 14, 196-218. Goldstein, B. E. (1999). Sensation & Perception, Fifth Edition. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks Cole Publishing. Knowlton, M., & Woo, I. (1989). Functional color vision deficits and performance of children on an educational task. Education of the Visually Handicapped, 20, 56-62. Lewis, B.A., Reitzammer, A., & Amos, J.F. (1990). color vision defects: what teachers should know. Reading Improvement, 27, 31-33. Pease, P.L. & Allen J. (1988). A new test for color screening color vision: concurrent validity and utility. American Journal of Optometry and Physiological optics, 65, 729-738. Sewell, J.H. (1983). Color counts too! Academic Therapy, 81, 329-37. Waggoner, T. L. (2000, February 6). New pediatric Color Vision Test for Three to Six Year Old Pre-School Children. [Online], Available. http://members.aol.com/nocolorvsn/color5.htm