More than 300 million people in the world are colorblind, making the condition far more common than many people realize. In addition, 98% of those affected suffer from red-green colorblindness, making this by far the most common form of the condition. As a result, many colorblind people are unable to see works of art as their creator originally intended, which can strip a work of art of its original meaning and prevent them from fully enjoying the work. Fortunately, a museum in Portland recently introduced a new program to combat this.
The Portland Art Museum now offers red-green glasses to people with colorblindness who request them, allowing them to view art in ways they were previously unable to. With this program, the Portland Art Museum becomes the first art museum in history to offer colorblind glasses to visitors.
Thanks to a grant from the French American Museum Exchange, whose goal is to make it easier for blind and visually impaired museum visitors to interact with art, the museum was able to purchase five pairs of EnChroma colorblindness glasses. The glasses contain a light filter that amplifies the difference between red and green. While this doesn’t completely negate colorblindness, it allows people with red-green colorblindness to see a wider variety of hues. These glasses typically retail for between $200 and $400, making the Portland Art Museum’s rental program even more unique.
“A lot of my work is curating and art analysis and looking at art all the time, every day,” says Jason Lee, a Kress Interpretive Fellow at the art museum and one of the first to try out the glasses. “I think a lot of people experience art in completely different ways, and that’s one of the beautiful and powerful things about it. It’s exciting because I think I’m getting the opportunity to see some of my favorite works again.”
The museum offers both children’s and adult sizes, as well as options that can be worn over prescription glasses. For more information, visit the museum’s accessibility page.
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Answer: (The Oregonian)
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