National Color Blind Awareness Day

While the name might seem to imply that a person who is color blind sees only in black and white, this is not completely accurate. While this can happen, it is extremely rare. More common are the people who are affected by color blindness typically see color with less of a range.

National Color Blind Awareness Day is here to bring attention to this special vision trait and help the world to understand just a bit more about it!

History of National Color Blind Awareness Day

National Color Blind Awareness Day takes place on the anniversary of the birth of scientist John Dalton in 1766. Dalton was the first person to discover that the human eye can see colors in different ways. In fact, the motivation behind it was the fact that Dalton and his brother both saw colors differently than most other people.

Dalton’s reasoning was incorrect, since thought it was because of a kind of blue liquid in their eyes. And his name for this was “Daltonism”. In a magnanimous effort to clear up the question, Dalton even left his eyes to science after he died. What he didn’t realize is that the condition must be hereditary as it affected both him and his brother, which would only be confirmed more than 150 years later when DNA proved that color blindness was a genetically inherited trait.

The first National Color Blind Awareness Day was celebrated in 2015 and founded by Colour Blind Awareness, which is a non-profit interest group that was started in 2010. The group is dedicated to raising awareness about the needs of color blind people in communities.

Since its founding, National Color Blind Awareness Day has continued to grow each year, with millions of people all over the world engaging on social media and in other ways.

How to Celebrate National Color Blind Awareness Day

Have a chat with a friend or family member who is color blind, and also, check out some of these ideas for observing National Color Blind Awareness Day:

Take a Color Blindness Test

An interesting element about color blindness is that not everyone who is color blind actually knows it! Many people, especially those with a milder form of it, can live far into adulthood without realizing that they see color differently than other people.

Those who are interested in seeing if they have a degree of color blindness might want to take a test. Ask at an eye doctor appointment, or even check out an online version of a color blindness test.