Editor—The data of Cumberland et al suggest that screening for colour blindness may not be necessary.1 My colour “blindness” was not discovered until I was 19 during a medical examination for airforce pilots. Needless to say that was the end of any possible airforce career.
At the time I was working in an advertising agency, and it was part of my job to correct colour photographic proofs. I knew that my colour vision was not particularly good but put it down to having missed colour lessons at school. On reflection, I now realise that I automatically tended to refer to shape, form, shading, position—in fact, anything rather than a picture's colour. Being smacked on the head by a primary school art teacher for having been stupid in drawing purple sky and brown grass may have contributed to this.
Now, as a physiotherapist, I do not have any difficulty with assessing patients. Bruising, blanching, ecchymosis, and other colour changes are just as visible to me as to my “normal” colleagues. Maybe I cannot distinguish the colour accurately, but acuity is undiminished. From a practical perspective, having defective colour vision has made no difference to my life, apart from realising I need help in choosing colours for combinations of clothes.
Competing interests: None declared.
References
- 1.Cumberland P, Rahi JS, Peckham CS. Impact of congenital colour vision deficiency on education and unintentional injuries: findings from the 1958 British birth cohort. BMJ 2004;329: 1074-5. (6 November.) [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]