Does being "color-blind" affect children?(Child Development)(Brief Article)

Color blindness is a common condition in which people cannot distinguish between certain colors (the most common form is red-green color blindness). This condition is inherited, present at birth, and there is no known way to correct it, in some countries, such as the United Kingdom, children are screened for color blindness so that those who have it can be advised about future work-related problems they could encounter. This advice is based on the belief that people who are color blind have greater risks for injuries, but there is little in tint way of scientific data to support that concern.

To learn more, researchers studied 12,534 children in the U.K. who, at age 11, had been screened for color vision. The children were followed until age 33 years to measure their educational achievement and patterns of injuries. Overall, 6.7% of the boys and 1.1% of the girls had color vision defects. In their analysis of educational achievement, the authors found that children with color blindness did no worse than other children. The same was true for injuries--rates were no higher among children with color vision defects, whether injuries occurred as a driver of a motor vehicle or injuries occurred in the workplace.

The authors conclude that "most people with colour vision defects develop effective adaptive strategies and behaviours, and they use other clues, such as a colours saturation, to deal with any potential limitations in their professional and personal lives. At a population level, congenital colour vision defects confer no functional disadvantage in relation to educational attainment and unintentional injury."

(Cumberland P et al: British Medical Journal, November 6, 2004, pp. 1074-1075)

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