Now that it is the first of November, Autumn is in full bloom and now all the leaves have turned orange and yellow. Autumn is probably my favourite season mainly because my friends and I can finally agree on what colour the leaves are! So, in the spirit of the season, here is the Autumn experience for a colour blind person.
What is it like to be colour blind in Autumn
Now if you have read all my blogs so far (thanks by the way), you would know that a lot of what I talk about is the many differences between people with colour blindness and people with normal vision and how colour blind people have many obstacles that they have to face in their day to day life. That being said this is not one of those blogs. Don’t get me wrong there still is a lot of difference between what you would see and what I would see and what someone with a different type of colour blindness would see, but in general us colour blind people get what you're talking about.
Yes I will admit I still see lots of brown in the leaves in trees, but just pretend for a moment you are colour blind. If you’ve only seen trees, bushes, and flowers as this ocean of brown, a small streak of orange and yellow here and there is enough to make your day. When your world is dull for 3 out of the 4 seasons of the year, you cherish the one season when there is a bit more vibrance in your life, even if it's in a muted fashion.
I am not the only one who thinks this either, if you read last week's blog you would know that Sam, the student I interviewed also talked about how he enjoys the Autumn trees as he gets to see something colourful for once.
Enhancing the experience
Now to all you with normal vision reading this, you’ve probably seen the comparison photo above and thought: Wow! That's depressing. Well for you, yes, but for the people who haven’t seen the difference for the majority of their life have got nothing else to cling onto, so let us have this. Recently in Tennessee, Enchroma, a colour corrective glasses company, has worked in partnership with the Tennessee tourist board to install viewers that allow colour blind people to see the real beauty of Tennessee. The viewers were first installed in 2017 and slowly more have been installed across the state.
Many people who have experienced these viewers have been brought to tears, with one man finally understanding why so many people came from miles away to see the sights.
My project
Now if you’re as much of a cynic as I am, you would be thinking so what? Some people in Tennessee can see colour now, good for them. And if you’re colour blind and a cynic you might think: great I am going to have to book a ticket to Tennessee to see some pretty leaves. Well, my friend, not anymore! I have been in contact with 2 in parks in the Surrey area about such an idea that can be implemented in the UK. It's early days, but if I can get this off the ground 3 million people in the UK can experience the natural beauty of their country.
Now normally I sign off by asking everyone to share my blog and follow my social media, but now I am serious (well more serious than usual). If we can show these 2 parks that this is something the public wants, we can really help make a difference for those 3 million people and help spread awareness of this condition. I also expanded my social media operation to Instagram, so click the little Instagram button to follow me there. Thanks.
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