Specially-engineered glasses can help three million colour blind people in the United Kingdom alone.
EnChroma, Inc. – creators of glasses for colour blindness – last week announced its expansion to the United Kingdom. Colour blindness affects one in 12 men (8%) and one in 200 women (.5%); 350 million people worldwide, 19 million in Europe and almost three million in the United Kingdom. While people with normal colour vision see over one million shades of colour, those with colour vision deficiency (CVD) only see an estimated 10% of hues and shades. Common colour confusions include green and yellow, grey and pink, purple and blue, and red can appear brown (see images below).
EnChroma’s patented lens technology is engineered with special optical filters to help people with colour blindness see an expanded range of colours and see colours more vibrantly, clearly and distinctly. A recent study by world-renowned colour vision scientists at the University of California, Davis, and France’s INSERM Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute, demonstrated the effectiveness of EnChroma glasses.
“EnChroma leads the way in scientific innovation for assistive solutions for colour vision deficiency, has developed products that help people overcome frustrating daily vision obstacles, and is enthusiastically embraced by users and eyecare professionals,” said Erik Ritchie, CEO of EnChroma. “Launching operations in the UK is an important step to meeting demand and growing our footprint in Europe.”
EnChroma has established its UK base – including a distribution facility – in Milton Keynes. Chris Dykes has been named Director of Operations for EnChroma UK. He manages a current staff of five with plans to hire more people soon.
“Launching EnChroma in the UK is a significant step towards helping more colour blind people in the UK and Europe,” said Dykes. “The UK curtailed testing school children for colour blindness about 10 years ago, so one of our key goals will be to refocus attention on the condition and its effects on children and their learning as well as adults. We look forward to enabling those with colour vision deficiencies to experience more of life’s colourful moments and surmount obstacles.”
Dykes brings years of experience as a solicitor specialising in Public and Local Government Law with a particular focus on judicial review cases. He has brought crucial matters before the high court, often in emergencies with urgent injunctions required.
EnChroma’s expansion comes on the heels of the firm’s recent announcement that corporate leader Peter Cuneo, and G. Nagesh Rao, former Chief Technologist for the US Small Business Administration’s SBIR program and an Eisenhower Fellow, have joined its Board of Directors.
EnChroma glasses are available at enchroma.co.uk and through EnChroma Authorised Retailers with prices starting at £170. EnChroma also plans to expand the number of retailers offering EnChroma to patients in the near future.
EnChroma continues to lead in advocating for “colour accessibility” through its EnChroma Colour Accessibility Program. The program helps public venues, schools, state parks, libraries, museums, and other organizations purchase and loan EnChroma glasses to colour blind students and guests to help make schoolwork that involves colour, colourful exhibits, attractions and/or experiences accessible to the colour blind. As part of the program, EnChroma encourages schools to quickly and easily test students for colour blindness using its online colour vision test as British schools stopped testing children through the national Healthy Child Programme in 2009.
How the colour blind see the world:
