Colourblindness in everyday life and car driving

Purpose: The aim of the present work was to ascertain, through the administrationof a psychosocial questionnaire, the difficulties that subjects with defectivecolour vision experience in carrying out everyday tasks and work, includingdriving a car with a driver's licence held for no more than 3 years.Methods: Subjects with defective colour vision (n=151) and subjects withnormal vision (n=302) completed a psychosocial questionnaire regarding thedifficulties associated with congenital colour vision deficiency in daily life, workand driving a car. Subjects were diagnosed as colour-blind using the Ishihara test.Results: Statistically significant differences between the two samples were foundfor daily life activities. Subjects with defective colour vision preferred daytimedriving. At night, subjects with defective colour vision had difficulty identifyingreflectors on the road and the rear signal lights of cars ahead of them.Conclusion: Colour-blindCalabrian subjects admitted to experiencing colour-relateddifficulties with a wide range of occupational tasks and leisure pursuits. In particular,colour-blind Calabrian subjects preferred daytime driving, and fewer drove regularly,compared to orthochromatics, who were indifferent to night or daytime driving.