My husband is color blind with his blindness being in the red/green categories. Per the Enchroma website’s color blindness test, he has moderate protonamly. This means he is can see a variety of colors but he has difficulty distinguishing between variations of red and green.
Here is what their website says about moderate protanomaly:
Protans are people with protanomaly, a type of red-green color blindness in which the red cones do not detect enough red and are too sensitive to greens, yellows, and oranges. As a result, greens, yellows, oranges, reds, and browns may appear similar, especially in low light. It can also be difficult to tell the difference between blues and purples, or pinks and grays.
When I was dating my now husband I will never forget the day I wore a mint green skirt around him. His comment was how pretty I looked in my pink skirt. That was my first real insight into how his color blindness affects his vision.
In 2015 I saw an ad on Facebook for the Enchroma glasses. I told myself I would buy them for my husband.
This year we made the splurge. I told him ahead of time so he could pick the frames (and so he wouldn’t wonder what the large charge was on our card). The idea was to give him something to remember for his 40th birthday. We decided on the indoor glasses in hopes that he could use them at work, if the glasses helped him, as he is an electrical engineer.
Set up
We do not have a lot of bright colors in our home, so I went to the dollar store and purchased several rolls of colorful wrapping paper, tissue paper, and a gift bag.
The day I chose to have him try the glasses, I took strips of the color paper and taped it to our walls.
I made sure to have extra lighting in the room. I then put the glasses into the gift bag with the colorful tissue paper.
Glasses Test
The glasses were tried by looking at various colored items in different settings:
- Colored paper
- Guitar neck inlays
- Enchroma vision test
Colored Paper
Before he tried on the glasses he wrote the color he could see on each strip of wrapping paper.
Next, I had him put on the glasses. What I had hoped would happen, excitement over seeing more colors, did not occur.
My husband put on his glasses, looked at the wall of colors, took off the glasses and then put them back on again. His response was that he did not see anything different. There was one shade of pink he could not identify as a color. With the glasses he still could not tell the color.
Here is his reaction to the colored wrapping paper test.
Guitar Neck Inlays
My husband owns guitars that have some very nice detailing. Some of that detailing is inlaid art in the neck. The inlay on one of the necks are pearlized birds with gray/green/pink hues.
This was the only item where my husband had the reaction I was hoping to see! The best way to put it is he could finally see the design (tinier detail) in the artwork.
Here is his reaction to the inlays.
Enchroma Vision Test
While wearing the glasses my husband retook their vision test. He was not able to see any more colors that when he took the test without the glasses.
You can see in the video below his reaction to some of the test questions.
Conclusion
Enchroma glasses are a wonderful concept. They appear to work for some based on videos one can view online. It is difficult to choose between the indoor or outdoor glasses, unless you can afford to get both.
The glasses did not give my husband the ability to see more colors. He still couldn’t see green (like grass) or red variations. They did let him see some minute detail in tiny, carved artwork. He said it was more like going from regular TV to HD. Enchroma did state in an email, when we asked to return them, that the user may need to wear the glasses for 10 or more hours to let the eyes adjust. My husband did not feel that would make a difference.
The glasses did not have a big enough positive impact on my husband’s vision to make us decide to keep them. We don’t know if the outdoor glasses would have a different impact on his vision, and it is likely we won’t find out since we don’t plan to order them.
Enchroma has a generous return window of 60 days to send the glasses back if the user is not satisfied. That makes them worth a try. They work differently on everyone.
FTC Disclosure
The Flip Flop Wife uses this product, has been to this location, or has experienced the service reviewed. The Flip Flop Wife was not asked to review this product, go to this location, or try the service. No money, or other compensation, was given to The Flip Flop Wife to entice us to review this product, go to this location, or try the service. The opinions on it are The Flip Flop Wife’s honest and true thoughts of the product, location, or service.
