Late last spring, I budgeted for and acquired two types of color-blindness-alleviating glasses for my design class in specific and the Morningside art department in general. Today was my introduction of our first color theory project in that class, so I brought the glasses out and said that if any students were having trouble either grasping the assignment or seeing colors change, they should try the glasses out to see if they could make a difference.

One of my students told me that he was not seeing the colors change in the project examples, but he was sure he wasn't color blind. I shared that there's a spectrum so it doesn't have to be all-or-nothing color blindness, and he could just test out if the glasses would help or not. He tried the deutan pair on and saw no difference. Next he tried on the protan pair and was surprised as he immediately registered color changes. I sent him outside just to check the world out and he came back after a few minutes and said he had no idea how much red was in our bricks or that there were maroon/brown moments mixed in the grass. Then he rocked the glasses for the rest of the class period while working on the color theory exercises.

You guys. I knew the glasses would help some students eventually, but on their debut they are already making a difference to a student for this project and more meaningfully for his general understanding of and experience with the world around him. I am so happy.

If you’re curious, the company I bought them from is EnChroma, and by coincidence it also happens to be International Color Blindness Awareness Month, so I’m both doing my part by raising awareness but also if you wanted some yourself, EnChroma is currently celebrating with 20% off.