Gray = Life

Monochromacy (also known as achromatopsia) is a type of color blindness that people tend to refer to as “Complete Color-Blindness.” Monochromacy is when an individual can only see shades of gray. Monochromacy is extremely rare, occurring only in approximately 1 person in 33,000. People aren’t always born monochromatic, as Julian Crisp stated in his interview with Vice, “I didn’t notice too much until I started to [see] a certain shade of yellow [that looked] like a certain shade of blue, even though they are completely different. But their brightness is the same.” 

The view of a person with Monochromacy can be described as taking a picture, then using a filter to drain all the color out. You can also think of an old black-and-white movie, but for your whole life. Luckily, there are glasses that can give people with this color blindness a way to see color. Like most colorblind people, not seeing colors doesn’t really affect their life except with Monochromacy. It is usually not a safe idea for people to drive because they can not see stoplights correctly. Clothing can also be a challenge if you work alone.                                                                                        

Monochromacy is the rarest type of colorblindness, we usually only think of Deuteranopia (Red and Green colorblindness), Protanopia (red color blindness), and Trichromacy (blue and green, purple and red, and yellow and pink. It also makes colors look less bright). Many reasons we don’t hear about Monochromacy is because of the rarity of the condition, but I believe that we should still stay aware of every kind of color blindness because you never know if you will meet someone different than you.

                                               Links

“Monochromacy – Complete Color Blindness.” Colblindor, 20 July 2007, https://www.color-blindness.com/2007/07/20/monochromacy-complete-color-blindness/.

“Types of Colour Blindness.” Colour Blind Awareness, https://www.colourblindawareness.org/colour-blindness/types-of-colour-blindness/.