Special Specs

Brad Ingles works at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, in Colorado. Yet he can’t always appreciate the art in the same way others do because he is colorblind. While taking a group tour of the museum, Ingles’s colorblindness made him feel left out. “If you’re not able to point to the things that they’re pointing at and notice the same colors, then it really is a whole different experience that could leave you out,” he says.

Last December, the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (MCA Denver) acquired four pairs of glasses that allow people with certain types of colorblindness to see a greater variety of colors. EnChroma, the company that makes the glasses, donated them to MCA Denver and provides them at a discount to other art museums. The glasses’ lenses filter out certain colors of light that the color-processing cells, or cones, in the eyes of colorblind people have trouble telling apart.

Brad Ingles works at the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, in Colorado. But he can’t always appreciate the art in the same way others do. That’s because Ingles is colorblind. When he took a group on a tour of the museum, he felt left out. “If you’re not able to point to the things that they’re pointing at and notice the same colors, then it really is a whole different experience,” he says.  

But last December, the Museum of Contemporary Art Denver (MCA Denver) received four pairs of glasses that could help Ingles. The glasses allow people with certain types of colorblindness to see more colors. EnChroma, the company that makes the glasses, donated them to MCA Denver. The company also provides them at a discount to other art museums.

The glasses work because of special lenses. They filter out certain colors of light that the eyes of colorblind people have trouble telling apart.

Ingles tried the glasses the first day they were available. “The artworks looked all brown at first,” he says. “But with the glasses they had a lot of red or pink lines in them that I couldn’t see before.”

By late January, 150 museum visitors had tried the glasses. They included Gabe Aragon, 13, and his brother Joaquin, 12. They enjoy visiting art museums despite being colorblind. “I can’t really tell what I’m not seeing,” says Gabe. When they tried the glasses, they found out.

Ingles tried the glasses the first day they were available. “The artworks looked all brown at first,” he says. “But with the glasses they had a lot of red or pink lines in them that I couldn’t see before.”

By late January, 150 museum visitors had tried the glasses. They included Gabe Aragon, 13, and his brother Joaquin, 12. They normally enjoy visiting art museums even though they’re colorblind. “I can’t really tell what I’m not seeing,” says Gabe. But when he and his brother tried the glasses, they found out.

In one painting, a river that looked blue without the glasses appeared purple when Gabe put them on. “It was really weird,” Gabe says. “It was a little depressing,” says Joaquin. “It made me feel a little sad that we saw the colors so differently from other people.”

In addition to offering the glasses to museums, EnChroma is also working to provide glasses to places like national parks and schools. But Gabe thinks that even in art class, color-correcting glasses aren’t always necessary. “I remember I accidentally colored the sea purple once, but that was OK,” he says. Sometimes—as Gabe saw with the help of EnChroma glasses at the museum—purple is exactly the color the artist meant the water to be.

A river in one painting looked blue to Gabe without the glasses. But it appeared purple when he put the glasses on. “It was really weird,” Gabe says.

“It was a little depressing,” says Joaquin. “It made me feel a little sad that we saw the colors so differently from other people.”

EnChroma isn’t only offering the glasses to museums. The company is also working to provide glasses to places like national parks and schools. But Gabe thinks that color-correcting glasses aren’t always necessary—not even in art class. “I remember I accidentally colored the sea purple once, but that was OK,” he says. Sometimes—as Gabe saw at the museum—purple is exactly the color the artist meant the water to be.