You might say… but you’re a female. It’s true, though. It was an inclusion when I moved into this world. Mom and Dad both donated a defective X chromosome and voila! I’m red-green color blind. I learned today that my type has a more specific name than that. I could have been born a Protan, or even a Tritan, but I was born a Deutan. Sounds a bit like Game of Thrones and much more fun than just saying that I’m colorblind.
When I inform people that I have this genetic trait, I get very typical responses. The first is generally a denial.
“No, you’re not. Girls can’t be color blind.”
Um, yes. We can.
And then on to the test phase of the responses.
“Okay then, what’s this color?” asked while pointing to something obviously red or yellow.
An easier way to understand my form of being color blind, or as I like to call it, being color limited, is to reduce an image to a black and white version. Anything close in value in a gray scale will be a challenge for me to discern. Thus my confusion with mint green and gray, black and dark blue, certain browns and greens.
When my younger daughter was about five years old, I was helping her get dressed one morning. She was full of energy, bouncing on the bed, as I produced an outfit for her to wear.
“What about this one, sweetie?”
To which she responded, “Mom, do I need to remind you that you’re colorblind?”
Hey, kiddo. I bought these as a matched set. We’re good!
As a REALTOR, I joke with my clients about it. I tell them the only color anyone should concern themselves with is green, as in how green their money is!
If you have a male friend who is colorblind, EnChroma, as part of their Colorblindness Awareness Campaign, has a contest where they could win a pair of glasses that CORRECT colorvision!
http://tinyurl.com/EnChroma
It’s in conjunction with Father’s Day, though you don’t have to be a dad to enter.
I wonder if you can be a Mom and enter…. Hmmm.
~Monica Hill, the Deutan REALTOR
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