Color Vision Testing

A color vision test checks your ability to distinguish between different colors. You will sit in a comfortable position in regular lighting, and you will be shown several cards with multicolored dot patterns. In the patterns, some of the dots will apear to form numbers or symbols. You will be asked to identify the symbols, if possible.

This test is done to determine whether you have any problems with your color vision.

Color vision problems usually fall into two categories:

  • Present from birth (congenital) problems in the light-sensitive cells (cones) of the retina (the light-sensitive layer at the back of the eye)
  • Diseases of the optic nerve (the nerve that carries visual information from the eye to the brain)
The test is simple and completely painless.