Ishihara Test for Color Blindness

Colorblindness occurs in roughly 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women. Color deficiencies often pass down from our parents, rather than developing over time. Even though color blindness is more commonly an inherited condition, many people still live their lives without knowing they have a deficiency at all. Because vision is all about perception, many people with a deficiency do not realize they perceive colors differently than a person with average sight would. Therefore, getting tested for a color deficiency is important. There are many ways to test for a vision deficiency, but the more common method is the Ishihara test.



Ishihara’s Test
Ishihara test originally came in three versions, two in Japanese and one in Arabic, to test the vision of soldiers in the Imperial Japanese Army. In later years, the third version of the test, written in Arabic, became widely available in the west. Since then, it has changed numerous times throughout the years to become the test we so often rely on today in color vision testing.