This is hue-ge

Lincoln City program unlocks the colors of the coast

By Gretchen Ammerman

Oregon Coast TODAY

When you look at a beautiful view, you probably take it for granted that it is the same one shared by anyone else nearby. But for the many affected by color blindness, only a partial part of the colors available to view are actually seen.

A new program put in place by the City of Lincoln City is addressing this condition so that people with it can fully experience the Oregon Coast.

“One of our main goals is to extend accessibility to the community and visitors,” said Marketing Manager Cole Finley. “We are hoping to address any areas where we find it lacking.”

The City now has a lending program for EnChroma glasses that correct both types of color blindness, Protan and Du-tan.

“I had seen an ad for the glasses and thought they looked cool,” Finley said. “So I did a little research to see if this was something we could offer to the community. The company, EnChroma, has their own accessibility program so we partnered with them. We will have nine pairs of glasses for people to borrow.”

The interest Finley has in the program is both professional and personal.

“I’ve known I was color blind since I was a little kid,” he said. “I was coloring a tree and my parents asked me why I was coloring the tree brown. I thought it was green, so that’s when we discovered it.”

The experience, I was surprised to learn, is surprisingly common.

“One in 12 men and one in 200 women are color blind,” Finley said. “It’s passed maternally. More than 13 million Americans and 350 million people worldwide have some type of it.”

According to the EnChroma company, color blind people only see 10 percent of the one million hues and shades those with “normal” color vision see, and anything containing red or green is a challenge. To those who are color blind, a rainbow only appears to have two to three colors.

This can affect normal day to day activities.

“I’ll go to the grocery store for my wife and I have a hard time picking out something like an avocado or banana by just looking at it,” Finley said. “You don’t always want to be squeezing all the produce.”

To kick off the program, the EnChroma company gave three pairs of the glasses to the City to offer people that were willing to try them in front of a video cameraman and photographers, of which I was one.

Three men responded: Hayden Cahan, a 16 year old high school student from Lincoln City, Jacob Bowers, a 29 year-old HVAC Technician from Sheridan and Jason Bailey, a 40 year old landscaper from Lincoln City.

The group assembled at Knight Park to test the claim that “EnChroma glasses help the color blind see an expanded range of clear, vibrant color and improve depth and detail perception.”

“Being color blind makes it difficult to do some tasks in school that involve color,” Cahan said.

“I’ve grown used to it, but I want to know what the world really looks like. I hope the glasses can help me see what grass and tree leaves really look like, and I really want to really see a sunset.”

Jason Bailey says he often has to, “tell people not to use orange marking paint on grass” because he can’t see it.

“I want to see what my wife sees and go to an aquarium or art exhibit,” he said.

Bowers said that in school, he could not differentiate colors in science projects.

“It’s hard to try to tell my kids (ages three and five) what colors objects are,” he said. “I hope the glasses will help me in my work environment and to help me teach my kids colors. I would also like to see the real colors of Oregon in the Fall.”

Once the glasses were on it was at first underwhelming to observe, as it takes a bit for the brain to adjust to the technology. But after a few beats, the men began to respond as their fields of vision began to take on an increase in perception of detail. Then, the group walked down to a pier where birds with blue wings and red chests were nesting and the group really perked up, taking their glasses off and putting them back on to see the difference.

“On our website we have the colorblind test available,” Finley said. “The test will determine  what type of color blindness you have so that you get the right glasses. The most important thing is that we want people to see all of the beautiful colors of the Oregon Coast.”

EnChroma glasses are available to borrow from the Lincoln City Community Center, located at 2150 NE Oar Place. For more information, go to explorelincolncity.com/accessibility.