• Question: If you are blind would you be able to see a colour like black or white?

    Asked by leah1 to Laura, Nicola, Norman, Sandra, Thanasis on 14 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Laura Soul

      Laura Soul answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      That depends on what kind of blindness you had, some people are completely blind and so they can’t see anything at all, there is literally no information going to their brain about seeing anything. It is quite hard for people who can see to imagine what this would be like. Other blind people can detect differences in light levels, so they can’t see colours or objects but they can tell where light is coming from and detect a difference between light and dark. There are also some people who are a special type of colour blind where they don’t have the cells in their eyes that detect colours so they can see quite well but everything is in black, white and shades of grey.

    • Photo: Nicola Wardrop

      Nicola Wardrop answered on 14 Mar 2013:

      If people were born completely blind, so they have never been able to see anything, then they wouldn’t be able to see colours at all. If they were not quite completely blind, they might be able to see differences in light levels, which might look like different colours.

      If they could see when they were younger, and then lost their sight later, then they would be able to remember colours in their head and in their dreams, but wouldn’t actually see them.

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