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March 04, 2005
Protanopia
Henry has a fairly profound form of colorblindness called protanopia. It seems that he sees the world only in shades of blue, yellow, brown and grey. Pink and purple both appear blue to him. He says that orange and green look like a metal color. Once I had mud on my hands and he thought it was blood because red looks like dark brown to him. Of course, he doesn't have a sense of loss because this all he knows. In fact, he gets quite a bit of positive attention at preschool because the other kids always ask him what color he sees.
Most cases of protanopia are hereditary. The colorblindness gene is carried on the x chromosome. So if Henry's protanopia is genetic he received it from me. I asked both of my grandmothers who had seven brothers between them and neither knew of no one in their families who was colorblind. I mention only their brothers because for a female to be colorblind both of her parents need to carry the gene. So I think it's safe to say that it's an anomaly.
Here are some links if you want to learn more:
Colorblind Homepage
Color Phenomena
Color Scheme Generator
Colorblind Web Page Filter
The last two links have interactive tools that you can use to actually see how a colorblind person sees colors.
Posted by Julee at March 4, 2005 10:58 PM