Students chip in to buy color blind teacher glasses so he can see colors

[catbyte]

Link to tweet

[tblue37]

1. So touching. He must be a well-loved teacher. Now I am choking up. K&R. nt

[AJT]

2. Does anyone have experience with these types of glasses?

My boyfriend is colorblind and I would love to buy some glasses that would allow him to see color. What glasses work? There are several on the market.

[unblock]

3. i have. they're interesting and they work, but i rarely use them.

i deuteranomalous, which means that one of my cones (red, i think) peaks at a different wavelength for me than for most people.

so my color vision isn't objectively better or worse than everyone else, it's just different. but there's a major social aspect to color, namely how society groups a whole bunch of different wavelengths and combinations of wavelengths and labels them all with the same color, and that is where i have a problem.

so, society says things like "red and yellow make orange". well, that's not true. red and yellow make red and yellow. colors don't actually mix. if you analyze it with a spectrometer, you can see there's only red and yellow. they only *appear* to humans be the same a orange because it causes the combination of cones to fire in the same way as pure orange does.

except for me, i need a slightly different combination of red and yellow to have the same effect as orange. that means normal-vision people are actually colorblind in this case, because i can distinguish the "normal" mix of red and yellow from orange when they can't. conversely, if i increase the red a bit so that i can't distinguish that combination from orange, i'm the colorblind one because normal-vision people can tell that there's "too much" red.


anyway, the glasses are just color filters that help differentiate the colors that i have trouble with, basically in the red-green part of the spectrum. it does *not* cure color-blindness and it does *not* let me see colors like normal-vision people. it just lets me see colors differently, in a way that makes it a bit easier to distinguish colors that i normally have a problem with.

i've seen videos of people thinking they're having life-changing moments seeing color for the first time or seeing color like everyone else. it doesn't work like that, it can't. but it is a bit surreal that i can put on those glasses and pass one of those colorblindness tests when i couldn't ever do that without the glasses.


where it gets annoying for me is that i've also got presbyopia (i.e., i need bifocals). to color visions glasses don't correct for that, only for color, so i actually need to wear *both* glasses at the same time. quite the fashion statement, i guess.

for much more $$, you can get the color vision glasses that also meet a normal corrective prescription, but i haven't felt it was worth the cost.

[AJT]

4. This was very informative, thank you.

What brand of glasses do you have?

[lastlib]

7. Deuteranopia is most commonly red-green color blindness.

Twenty percent of all men have it to some degree (I'm among them), ranging from total to very little. It's much more rare in women. I can see some bright shades of red, but most red is hard to distinguish from gray. I see very little green--it's pretty much gray or black.

[csziggy]

8. Interesting - I think I have a variation of that. I see yellow/blue differently than most people

Back when my sister was working on her doctorate in physiology, we got into a discussion of color vision. She'd already tested the entire family for the ability to see true indigo, which I could. But I was describing a shade of blue and said it had more yellow than most blues. We got into a whole debate about how it was blue/green rather than blue/yellow, but I knew what I see.

I also see yellow/red a little differently but because I trend more towards blues, I am pickier about exactly which shade I am selecting.

My vision isn't different enough to affect every day life or to feel the need to wear something to adjust it. But when I am selecting colors for a needlework project, I do get my husband to help. Once in a while I have put colors together in combinations that everyone else finds jarring so getting his help makes my work more palatable to others.

[unblock]

9. Sounds like you are tritanomolous, which is quite rare.

Like me but you need more blue in a mix than most people to get the same effect.

I also get other people to pick colors for me, I tend towards very vivid primary colors that strike others as way to garish.

[csziggy]

10. Oh, neat! Same as you, I am presbyopia with severe astigmatism in one eye

So off the shelf glasses just don't work for me.

My sister probably knew all the names for what she was testing me for, but she, like many geniuses, thought normal people wouldn't understand.

I tend to go for grayed out colors, especially blues, or what used to be called jewel tones - deep intense colors. Unfortunately, those are seldom in fashion, so finding clothes I like is hard. Since my biggest fashion choice is which tee shirt with a picture I will wear with my jeans, it doesn't bother me much.

[3catwoman3]

5. I have seen a few videos of people trying these...

...glasses for the first time, and they are universally overwhelmed, as this man was.

What a kind thing his students have done.

[RandiFan1290]

6. I love those videos

I've never seen so many men break down in tears so fast.