It's a beautiful morning at the Ventura Botanical Gardens. This year’s rains have helped create a bumper crop of plants. There’s an explosion of red, yellow, and orange flowers. But, that distinction is lost on a group of five people standing on one of garden’s trails. They are color blind.
"I do see a lot of colors," said Trent Barnhart, who is is one of them. "I see a lot of greens, yellows, some purples. But, of course that's what I assume I see...I don't know what normal color vision people are experiencing."
Tom Retan is also color blind. "The best way I can describe it to people is that if there's like a thousand color receptors in your eyes...we would have like 800."
They aren’t alone. An estimated 300 million people in the world are impacted by the issue, the vast majority males. But, this morning the Botanical Gardens is trying to open the eyes of this group of color blind people to what they’ve been missing.
Barbara Brown is with the Botanical Garden. She says thanks to some benefactors, Mike and Loretta Merewether, the garden added a scope viewer which allows those who are colorblind to experience true color. They've also given the gardens some cutting edge sunglasses which help those with color blindness see more of the color spectrum.
The five color blind people here are getting free pairs of the glasses. "Today, the are coming up during the superbloom to see the colors with the gardens with EnChroma sunglasses," said Brown.
The special EnChroma brand sunglasses are also available for those who are color blind to borrow from the gardens.
Barnhart tries on his new glasses for the first time. "Things see a little purple-er, the African bulbs are vibrant," he said.
Retan said the glasses are opening up a whole new world to him. "I don't know how they do it, but they do help," he said.
But, perhaps no one is excited as Jeannette Licea. The nine-year-old girl loves to draw, and says there is nothing more frustrating than having the colors in her work off because of her color blindness. She slips on the sunglasses.
"Yes, I can see a big difference," said Licea. "Those (flowers) without them, they look purple, with with them, you can see they are pink."
The little girl’s mother, Jeanie Licea, is beaming. "It's very emotional, because I don't know what the world's like for her. It's opening up new doors for her...it's very exciting."
The stylish looking sunglasses incorporate some cutting edge technology, and sell in the $200-300 range. For people with normal color vision wearing the glasses feels like you’re in a 1970’s movie, with beautiful, bright colored pastels everywhere.
Matt Serrano, who is color blind, is overwhelmed. "It's really bright...and neon...and it looks just so amazing...beyond words," he said.
