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My Colour Blindness and Me
How it affects my life
Before he was unceremoniously dumped by the BBC for a seriously misjudged ‘joke’, I had read Danny Baker’s autobiographical book Going to Sea in a Sieve. It’s quite a good read, and I did laugh out loud a few times, particularly when he related the tale of what happened when he went to see the musical Hair, and he had a brush, literally, with a naked male dancer. Danny is a few years older than me, so I was able to relate to many of the events he mentioned from his childhood, like foraging for Guy Fawkes’ Night bonfire wood, attending his first football game with his dad, and getting his first tracksuit.
While writing of his school days, Danny tells of the time a nurse came to carry out Ishihara tests to see if he, or any of his classmates, suffered from colour vision deficiency (CVD), or, to give it its more common name, colour blindness.
I Take the Ishihara Test
I remember having these tests too, and failing miserably. I’m sure you are familiar with the Ishihara test; the pupil looks down a scope at a slide made up of many coloured spots in which a number is hidden. I went into the test confident that I’d do well. This is pretty much what happened.
“What number do you see?” the nurse said as I peered down the scope. I could see nothing but a…
