This Museum Offers Special Glasses to Colorblind Visitors The museum experience relies on visuals. You step into the space expecting to see something new, to lose yourself in stunning compositions and�perhaps most importantly�vivid colors. But not all museum visitors can perceive color the same way. Visitors to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago can now pick up a pair of EnChroma glasses and see artworks in their full color spectrum for the first time.

 

By adjusting the separation within red and green cones�the colorblind condition occurs when the sensing of light overlaps within these cones�EnChroma glasses allow wearers with red-green color blindness to see color again.

According to the National Eye Institute, eight percent of males and 0.5 percent of female with North European ancestry are red-green colorblind. That means some of the population has trouble distinguishing between colors or seeing some colors in their full hue.

The process behind making the glasses hinges on �perceptual psychophysics� or the �study of how physical stimuli are transformed to perceptual phenomena using our senses,� as the EnChroma website explains. Though the glasses only create a simulation of sorts, wearers still experience a significant change in their perception of objects.

The MCA Chicago is the first museum to offer these glasses to visitors. Visitors can pick up a pair at the front of the museum, free of charge. The glasses were supplied by Valspar as part of the Color for All campaign, which focuses on bringing EnChroma glasses to those who struggle to see color. In a video, users wear the glasses to look at art pieces but also everyday sights like paint strokes on the wall and drawings by kids.

At the museum, can experience more fully not only the visual nature of pieces but the emotional responses that these colors often spark in their viewers. Among the many users of these glasses is Matthew Renton, the Director of Communications at the museum. In an interview with Creator Project, he suggests that EnChroma wearers spend some time looking at the Martin Creed Painting in the museum cafe.

As one of the largest establishments dedicated to contemporary art, the MCA Chicago is making a move that might inspire other museums to increase accessibility for visitors with color blindness.