EYE OPENING

Are YOU colour blind? These incredible images reveal how the world looks with four different colour deficiencies

Colourblindness affects 1 in 200 women in the world and 1 in 12 men in the world, equating to 2.7 million people in Britain - about 4.5 per cent of the population

ANDREA DOWNEY

Published: 12:15, 26 Jan 2017
Updated: 4:29, 27 Jan 2017

THERE are more than two million people in Britain who suffer from colourblindness.

Colourblindness, or colour vision deficiency, comes in different variations and means a person struggles to identify and distinguish between certain colours.

This is how a person with normal vision sees the colours of the rainbowCredit: //www.color-blindness.com/

According to the NHS, it affects 1 in 200 women in the world and 1 in 12 men in the world, equating to 2.7 million people in Britain - about 4.5 per cent of the population.

Total colourblindness, meaning a person is unable to see any colour, is very rare.

Most people with colour vision deficiency have difficulty distinguishing between shades of red, yellow and green.

This is known as "red-green" colour vision deficiency.

Colour vision deficiency is usually passed on from parents and is present at birth, but it can develop later in life.

Most people are able to adapt to the vision problem and it is rarely a sign of anything serious.

These graphics from illustrate the four types of colourblindness people experience.

1. Deuteranomalia

People with deuteranomalia have a reduced sensitivity to green light.

It is the most common form of colourblindness.

People with this condition generally have difficulty distinguishing between reds, greens, browns and oranges.

They are more likely to confuse mid-reds with mid-greens, blue-greens with grey and mid-pinks, bright greens with yellow and pale pinks with light grey.

2. Protanopia

For people with this condition, all shades of red and green look very faded.

But yellows and blues are largely unaffected.

It is caused by a reduced sensitivity to red light.

Like deuteranomalia, people have trouble distinguishing between reds, greens, browns and oranges.

They are also more likely to confuse black with shades of red, dark brown with dark green and some blues with some reds, purples and dark pinks.

3. Tritanopia

The most common colour confusions for tritanopes are light blues with greys, dark purples with black, mid-greens with blues and oranges with reds.

It is commonly called blue-yellow colourblindness.

It is a very rare form of colourblindness.

4. Total colourblindness (Monochromacy)

As the picture shows, people with this form of colourblindness cannot see colour at all.

They see the world through different shades of grey and black.

It is caused by the total absence of either two or three of the retinal cones in the back of the eye, which allow people to process light into colour.

Being totally colour blind makes everyday life much more challenging because he ability to tell the difference between colours of a similar level of brightness becomes nearly impossible.

That makes things like distinguishing between the colours on traffic lights very difficult.