Table 1.

A summary of tests for CVD either intended for use on children or presented on tablet displays

Test name	Adult sensitivity/specificity, numbers of adult test participants, and comparison test	Details of tests on children including numbers of participants and sensitivity/specificity where available	Recommended minimum age for test	Limitations
Pseudoisochromatic
Ishihara for Unlettered Persons* (Ishihara & Ishihara, 1943)	0.98/1.00 (Birch & McKeever, 1993) (CVD=29, CVN=263) Ishihara, 1989 edition (Ishihara, 1989)	90% of 3–6-year-old children (N=40) successfully completed the test (Mäntyjärvi et al., 2000)	4 years (Birch & Platts, 1993)	†, ‡, § Requires shape knowledge and pathway tracing
Kojima-Matsubara Color Vision Test plates* (Matsubara & Kojima, 1957)	0.08/0.90 (Lee et al., 1997) (CVD=13, CVN=20) Anomaloscope	3–6-year-old children (N=40) successfully completed the test (Mäntyjärvi et al., 2000)	4 years (Mäntyjärvi et al., 2000)	†, ‡, § Requires animal knowledge
Pease Allen Color Test* (Pease & Allen, 1988)	0.87/1.00 (Pease & Allen, 1988) (CVD=23, CVN=210) Anomaloscope	97% of 3–6-year-old children passed the test (Pease & Allen, 1988)	3 years (Pease & Allen, 1988)	†, ‡
Color Vision Testing Made Easy (CVTME)* (Waggoner, 1994)	0.97/0.90 (Dain, 2010) (CVD=41, CVN=42) Anomaloscope	Children over 4 years successfully completed the test (Richardson et al., 2008)	3 years (Waggoner, 1994)	†, ‡, § Requires shape, animal and object knowledge
Neitz Test of Color Vision* (Neitz & Neitz, 2001)	1.00/0.86 (Block et al., 2004) (CVD=14, CVN=26) Anomaloscope	Tested in 4–12 years (N=115) and verified with genetic testing (Neitz & Neitz, 2001)	4 years (Neitz & Neitz, 2001)	†, ‡, § Requires shape knowledge
Color Vision Evaluation Test (CVET)* (Fish et al., 2020)	N/A	3–18 years 0.96/0.96 (Fish et al., 2020) (CVD=70, CVN=85) Ishihara 38-plate edition	3 years (Fish et al., 2020)	†, § Ability to identify orientations
Oddity
Mollon-Reffin Minimalist Test* (Mollon et al., 1991)	N/A	3–10 years successfully completed the test (Shute & Westall, 2000). Children rated as most enjoyable test compared to CVTME, Neitz and Analphabetic Ishihara (Tekavčič Pompe & Stirn Kranjc, 2012)	3 years (Shute & Westall, 2000)	†, ‡
University of Waterloo Colored Dot Test* (Hovis et al., 2002)	0.57/1.00 (Hovis et al., 2002) (CVD=21, CVN=31) Anomaloscope	2.5–5 years 0.48/0.97 (Hovis et al., 2002) (CVD=25, CVN=524) Standard Pseudoisochromatic Plates (Ichikawa et al., 1979; Tanabe et al., 1978)	3 years (Hovis et al., 2002)	†
Tablet-based
DoDo game* (Nguyen, Do, et al., 2014; Nguyen, Lu, et al., 2014)	N/A	6–17 years 0.81/1.00 (Nguyen, Do, et al., 2014) (CVD=16, CVN=16) Ishihara, 1998 edition (Ishihara, 1998)	2.5 years (Nguyen, Lu, et al., 2014)	†
Optopad (de Fez, Luque, Matea, et al., 2018)	0.75/0.94 (de Fez, Luque, Matea, et al., 2018) (CVD=16, CVN=50) Farnsworth Munsell 100-Hue (Farnsworth, 1943)	3–11 years 1.00/1.00 (de Fez, Luque, Matea, et al., 2018) (CVD=6, CVN=335) Ishihara, 2002 edition (Ishihara, 2002)	3 years (de Fez, Luque, Matea, et al., 2018)	†, § Ability to identify orientations of the Landolt C

The table outlines the test type, adult sensitivity and specificity values with their sample size and comparison test, rates of successful test completion in children with sensitivity and specificity if available, the recommended minimum age for test completion and the limitations of each test

Note. Definitions. Anomaloscope: The anomaloscope is an optical instrument where individuals are asked to match different mixtures of red and green monochromatic lights to a yellow monochromatic light. It is the gold standard for assessing color vision; CVD: Participants with color vision deficiency (any CVD type, e.g., anomalous trichromacy, dichromacy); CVN: Participants with normal color vision; N/A: Not available; Pseudoisochromatic tests: These tests have an array of colored dots that form a figure (digits, pathways, letters, animals, or shapes) against an isoluminant background which individuals are asked to identify; Oddity tests: An odd-one-out task where individuals are asked to identify a colored target amongst distractors; Sensitivity: The rate at which a diagnostic test identifies true positives (i.e. individuals with a condition are correctly identified). For example, against the comparison test (in this example, the standard Ishihara test), the Ishihara Unlettered has a sensitivity of 0.98, indicating that 98% of individuals are correctly diagnosed as having a CVD (of any type) and 2% are false negatives (i.e., the Ishihara Unlettered diagnosed the individual as having normal color vision (CVN) but the standard Ishihara test diagnosed the same individual as CVD); Specificity: The rate at which a diagnostic test identifies true negatives (i.e. correctly identifies the absence of a condition). For example, when compared with the comparison test (in this example, the standard Ishihara test), the Ishihara Unlettered has a specificity of 1.00, indicating that 100% of CVN individuals were correctly categorized as CVN, and 0% of individuals were false positives (i.e., where the Ishihara Unlettered diagnosed the individual as CVD but the standard Ishihara test diagnosed the same individual as CVN).

Symbols. * The test was specifically designed for children. † Inaccessibility. The test is inaccessible for the public and/or requires specialized equipment and/or resources and/or a trained specialist administrator. ‡ Unknown validity. The sensitivity and specificity values of the tests are unknown in children; § Unsuitability. The test requires an understanding of numbers, orientation, shapes, and/or animals, or the task is so demanding that it is unsuitable for young children and children with additional educational needs.