Services: Testing and Procedures — Color Vision Testing

Color Vision Testing

The Ishihara Test is a test for red-green color deficiencies. The Test consists of a number of colored plates, each of which contains a circle made of many different sized dots of slightly different colors, spread in a seemingly random manner.

Color blindness is an inaccurate term to describe a lack of perceptual sensitivity to certain colors, a more precise term is Color Vision Deficiency (CVD). Color blindness is the most commonly used term though it is misleading if taken literally, because colorblind people CAN see colors, but cannot make out the difference between some couples of complementary colors.

The Ishihara Test is a test for red-green color deficiencies and is the most commonly used test to detect color vision deficiencies. The Ishihara Test was developed by the Japanese ophthalmologist Shinobu Ishihara (1879-1963). While working at the Military Medical School he was asked to devise a test to screen military recruits for abnormalities of color vision. His assistant was a colorblind physician who helped him test the plates. A collection of 38 plates filled with colored dots build the base of this test. The dots are colored in different shades and a number is hidden inside with shades of another color.

Source: Archimedes Laboratories