Leading the Colorblind By Chris Clark

Colors. Some say there are only seven of them. Others claim there may be closer to approximately 65,536 colors, or that the number may possibly be in the vicinity of 16,777,216. All vague guesstimates aside though, colors are the very things that color our world. They give everything hue and pigmentation. Millions of people worldwide, however, lack the ability to see these colors when they're staring them in the face.

It's called Colorblindness, a technical term meaning blind in terms of color. Before we begin probing the affects of this affliction on average people and treatment options, let's see if you can see color!

- Colorblindness Test - Take a good look at the square to the left. Among those circles there are some red and some green. The green ones form a number. What is that number? If all of these circles look like different shades of gray to you, you may be colorblind. If in fact these circles are rearranging themselves without your permission and it severely annoys you, consider contacting a psychotherapist in conjunction with an eye doctor.

So, did you have difficulty finding the number in there? Here's a hint: It's an irrational number that isn't the square root of an integer but is between zero and four. Still no luck? If so, you may be a faceless name on a list of sufferers of colorblindness, or a statistic, if you will.

So how does this glitch of nature affect one who has it? The ramifications are many in number. For example, clothes shopping and subsequent wearing of clothing can be a nightmarish experience. Shown right is Terry Bondle, a shipping clerk from Mesquite, NE. Terry's attire can best be described with such 'colorful' words as loud, gaudy, boisterous, or ostentatious. Unbeknownst to Terry, this nausea-inducing blend of colors like pea green, periwinkle, bright orange, and fire engine red hit people capable of seeing the colors like a ton of bricks. Some of Terry's coworkers complain of retinal pains and Terry's three children all have vision problems. Even though such attire comes with warning labels regarding their damaging effects on eyes, Terry wasn't able to read the blue letters on the purple background of the label. "My shirts are cool," a confused Terry commented. "They look like camouflage if I was in gray rocks and snow, like high up in the mountains. I think everybody likes what I wear."

Terry's story of gaudy clothing and a town to nice to say anything about it is just one of the terrible scenarios that come from a colorblind life. Pictured left is Jeremy and Francis Weiss, a young couple who just vacationed in lovely Scotland. Francis (right) has been colorblind all her life, whereas Jeremy (left) has always had perfect color vision. "Jeremy suggested we go to Scotland for our anniversary," said a mildly upset Francis. "He said it would be the greenest place in the world. That was his reason, to see some stupid color that we could just go to a paint store to look at." Tensions formed between Jeremy and Francis because of their inability to share in the color experience. "Scotland was gorgeous, and so green," Jeremy commented. "It's not my fault that Francis only saw gray. I had a good time, and she dealt with it."

For these tortured souls and countless others like them, is there a pot of silver at the end of the grayscale rainbow? Modern science is still struggling to repair colorblindness with limited success, so probably not. However, the life of the colorblind isn't all heartache and letdowns. The colors available may be limited to gray, ash, white, black, off-white, stone, and dark gray, but one can still live a full life. Here are some tips to doing just that, for the colorblind:

• Avoid professions such as painter, decorator, or spectral analyst.
• Avoid shopping for clothing/wigs alone.
• Avoid wearing color tinted sunglasses — they might only make matters worse.
• Purchase black and white televisions to save money.
• Discover how enjoyable silent movies can be.

Keep a creative outlook, and you'll see that colorblindness is nothing to get red in the face about.

-Chris Clark