What colours do colourblind people really see?

Question

Is everything a subtle shades of brown or grey?

Answer 1

I think it is usually red-green colour blindness.
They usually do not see these colours / cannot distinguish between them.

The Ishihara test is based on coloured number dots to detect colour blindness in patients. Patients can be diagnosed on specific colour perception abnormalities based on this test.

Answer 2

I am colour blind and I see all colours just fewer shades. Colours you would say are blue/green such as aqua, I might only see the green tones. I also have this problem with browns and reds. I once tried to do an intricate embroidery with 253 different shades. I didn't know I was colour blind and could not work out why I couldn't differentiate between some colours.

There is a very rare type of colour blindness where people see only in black and white.

Answer 3

I'm one of the 0.001 achromatopically colourblind people in the world. (totally colourblind) . Yellow highlighters are totally invisible to me, I can't tell the difference between a colour tv and a black and white - although b&w is usually clearer on a cheap tv. I don't know if I see the world in shades of red, green blue or grey.. I don't really know what the word 'blue' means. I'm rubbish at snooker and I've poured soup on my meal thinking it's gravy one too many times.. oh and I'm always eating things which look 'off' to other people - but I'm still alive!

my favourite colour is turquoise.. wow.. with a name like that it must be really spectacular!

Answer 4

It depends on the type of colour-blindness and which photopigments they effect. Generally a 'normal' person has 3 cone photopigments (red/green/blue) and 1 rod photopigment.
Rod Monochromats are patients (1 in 300,000 people) that have only one photopigment in the rod cells and as such have achromatic vision (without colour) and poor visual acuity.
Blue cone monochromats have rod photopigment as well as blue cone photopigment and, although visual acuity is poor, they can still distinguish yellow from blue in average light conditions.
Dichromats are patients that have one cone photopigment missing:
Protonopia is a condition where the red photopigment is absent - causing confusion between colours such as brown with red/black, and greys will be confused with blue-green or red.
Deuteranopia is a condition where the green photopigment is absent - causing confusion of green colours with browns or reds, and greys sill be confused with reddish-purple.
Tritanopia is a condition where the blue photopigment is missing. Colours such as blue will be confused with green, and greys will be confused with violets, olive greens or yellows (this form of dichromacy is quite rare: 1 in 13,000 people).
Finally, there are some patients that have all photopigments, but one of the cone photopigments doesn't work as well as the others - these are known as Anomalous Trichromats:
Protanomalous Tricromacy: Deficiency in the red photopigment - the subject will find viewing colours with red in there make-up will appear different.
Deuteranomalous Tricromacy: A weakness in the green photopigment means that the subject will need more than the normal green levels to match up with red to form yellow colours
Tritanomalous Trichromacy: Due to an abnormality in the blue photopigment, the subject will require more than the normal amount of blue in a blue-green mixture to match other blue-green colours.
So, summerising, it really depends on the type of color deficiency the patient has, and also how the visual pathway part of the brain is wired up, as to what colours they actually perceive.
The best website to view colour vision defects is:
http://www.tiresias.org/guidelines/colour_blindness.htm

Answer 5

They usually can't distinguish between red and green, but as far as we know, they see the world in a similar way to everyone else, just that these two colours show up as the same. It's not well known, but some tribes from the rain forest are able to distinguish between a couple of extra colours, which to the rest of us show up as just green. There is a form of colour-blindness where the sufferer sees everything in shades of one colour, called monochromacy, but this is uncommon.

Answer 6

I'm red / green colour blind, but didn't know until I was tested for it.
It doesn't actually mean that you can't see colour, just that you have problems distinguishing the two when they are mixed up.

For example, I can't see red flowers like poppies when they are in a field of grass, all I see is the green. If it is an equal mix of red and green dots, then it does look a fairly nondescript brown.

Answer 7

I have "severe red-green colorblindness" according to the doctors. I can see colors but I have trouble telling the difference in subtle shades of colors. Browns and reds sometimes look very similar... greens sometimes get lost in the shuffle...

It's probably like adjusting the color on your television set down a couple of notches... you can still see color, but it's not as vibrant.

Answer 8

Well I'm colour blind, but I see all coulours in good light, in poor light I stop seing reds and greens first, they are all grey.

Different people have different tolerances, some have trouble with differrent frequencies of light.

people who are totally colour blind see in shades of grey, but as their is no proof that we see colours the same, it could be all in blues to you

Answer 9

Sorry, this is a meaningless question.

I have red/green colour blindness. When I was very little my parents would tell me that a certain substance was "blue", or "red" etc. But, we have no way of telling whether we all see "blue" (etc) the same.

Truly colour blind people are very rare.

Answer 10

Color blindness is the absense of a certain type of rod in the eye that detects certain colors (You have 3, red green and Blue) when you are color blind you only see2 outnof the 3 colors. For example when you use your cones (night vision) they do not contain any "rods" and therefore make you only see black and white.