Misconception: People who are ‘colour blind’ see the world in black and white

Concept Corrected: People who are ‘colour blind’ see the world in a limited range of colours

The vast majority of people who are so-called ‘colour blind’ can see colours! They just see a more limited range of colours, compared to people with full colour vision.

In fact, the term ‘colour blind’ is very misleading. A better term to use is limited colour vision, or colour vision deficiency (which is the more common term in the scientific literature).  Limited colour vision is a phrase which more precisely captures this condition: people can see colours, but they see a more limited range of colours compared to people with full colour vision.

A related misconception is that people who are red-green colour blind can’t see red or green. ‘Red-green colour blindness’ is the common term for limited colour vision affecting the cones which absorb middle or long wavelengths of light. In all variations of this type of limited colour vision, people do see reds and greens, but they may not be able to distinguish them from other colours, depending on the exact type and severity of their limited colour vision.