TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The Arizona State Museumat the University of Arizona is partnering with EnChroma to make their exhibits more accessible to visitors.
Glasses are now available in the museum for people who have color blindness.
Color blindness is estimated to affect 300 million people in the world. About 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women are color blind.
On September 19, four people had the opportunity to be the first to try out the glasses.
Before trying on the special glasses, the four people shared their experience being color blind.
20-year-old college student Garrett Hoskinson said, “I'm usually right about what color it is, but I'm never confident about it. I'm always second guessing.”
“The biggest thing is it's embarrassing because I can't match my clothes up. My wife really gets on me about that,” said UA Professor John Turner. “And fortunately she has good color genes and she takes care of that.”
“When I retired I went into wood carving… And when I go to paint, I hand it back to my wife and say, ‘Here, you can finish it off and color it,’” said retired pharmacist David Eerkes.
Turner explained what being color blind is like for him.
“It’s not a black and white world. I do see a lot of colors. I love yellow and red, bright red I can see well. But to me purple and navy blue are the same thing. So it’s not as bad as it could be.”
But the view of the world changed for Turner and the other participants when they finally put the glasses on.
“There was definitely a difference and I think over time being able to wear those glasses, I would probably find many things that I didn’t realize I was missing,” Turner said.
The glasses are now available for museum guests to borrow during their visits.
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Madison Thomas joined KGUN 9 in July of 2023 as a multimedia journalist. She graduated from Arizona State University in May of 2023 with a degree in journalism and mass communication. She has lived in Arizona her entire life and grew up in Douglas. Madison is thrilled to share the stories from the community she grew up in. Share your story ideas and important issues with Madison by emailing madison.thomas@kgun9.com or by connecting on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
