CA-ENCHROMA

EnChroma® — creators of glasses for color blindness — today announced that organizations and businesses can now sign up to support International Color Blindness Awareness Month™ 2024. Every September, hundreds of organizations come together to promote ‘color accessibility’ and inclusion for the one in 12 men (8%) and one in 200 women (.5%) who are color blind; an estimated 13 million in the United States; 30 million in Europe; and 350 million worldwide.

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Anytime in September, hundreds of museums, universities, businesses, libraries, schools, park systems, tourism agencies, philanthropic groups and others will make social media posts, disseminate information, and engage in other activities to educate the public about the prevalence and effects of Color Vision Deficiency (CVD).

“Awareness of just how common color blindness is and how significant its impacts are, still remains low amongst employers, educators, parents and the general public,” said Erik Ritchie, CEO of EnChroma. “From color confusion in the workplace, at school, when enjoying sports and the outdoors, or when simply doing daily activities can be frustrating for those with CVD. This year, we hope even more organizations will support International Color Blindness Awareness Month to both educate and advocate on behalf of the color blind.”

While people with normal color vision see over one million shades of color, the red-green color blind only see an estimated 10% of hues and shades. As a result, colors can appear dull, indistinct and difficult to discern; red can appear brown; green can look tan, gray or yellow; and purple and blue look similar.

Click here to see more images depicting color blindness.

Last year, over 250 organizations around the world used their voices and platforms in support including multinational corporations such as Honeywell Aerospace, Siemens Energy and Faber-Castell; renowned museums such as the Centre Pompidou and the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum; universities such as the University of North Carolina, Boston University and North Carolina State University; state and national parks such as Friends of Kauai Wildlife Refuges and Alaska State Parks; the Atlanta Botanical Garden; nature advocates like the Audubon Nature Institute; and groups such as Travel Oregon, Lions and Kiwanis clubs, and the Boy Scouts of America.

How to Apply

Organizations and businesses can sign up here to commit to making at least one social media post, or undertake any other activity, that promotes color blindness awareness in September, using any of an array of customizable images and templates. Do as little as make one social media post using a customizable template or create your own post(s) with easy-to-use tools. Participating organizations can choose to receive two pairs of EnChroma glasses to give away to color blind students, customers, staff or visitors. The offer to give away EnChroma glasses is not available to individuals.

EnChroma Color Accessibility Program™

EnChroma is the lead advocate for ‘color accessibility,’ helping more than 400 universities, K-12 schools, state and national parks, libraries, museums, tourism departments, attractions and other organizations purchase and loan EnChroma glasses to color blind students and guests. EnChroma donates a pair of glasses for each pair an organization buys to lend to the public or students. The program is also open to employers. Scenic viewers adapted for the color blind are also available and in use by park systems across 25 states.

EnChroma glasses are engineered with special optical filters that help the red-green color blind experience an expanded range of colors more vibrantly and distinctly to make schoolwork that involves color, art, nature and other experiences more ‘color accessible.’ The glasses do not deliver full color vision and results and reaction times vary. EnChroma glasses enhance color for approximately 80% of people with deuteranomalous or protanomalous red-green color blindness who have all three of their color sensing cones. Read this study by UC Davis about the glasses.

About EnChroma

Based in Berkeley, Calif., EnChroma produces leading-edge eyewear for red-green color blindness and low vision, and other solutions for color vision, sold online and through Authorized Retailers worldwide. Invented in 2010, EnChroma’s patented eyewear combines the latest in color perception, neuroscience and lens innovation to improve the lives of people with red-green color vision deficiency around the world. EnChroma received an SBIR grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It earned the 2016 Tibbetts Award from the U.S. Small Business Administration in recognition of the firm’s innovative impact on the human experience through technology, and the 2020 Innovation Award in Life Sciences from the Bay Area’s East Bay Economic Development Alliance. Call 510-497-0048 or visit enchroma.com for more.

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