Colourblindness in everyday life and car driving

Purpose: The aim of the present work was to ascertain, through the administration of a psychosocial questionnaire, the difficulties that subjects with defective colour vision experience in carrying out everyday tasks and work, including driving a car with a driver's licence held for no more than 3 years. Methods: Subjects with defective colour vision (n=151) and subjects with normal vision (n=302) completed a psychosocial questionnaire regarding the difficulties associated with congenital colour vision deficiency in daily life, work and driving a car. Subjects were diagnosed as colour-blind using the Ishihara test. Results: Statistically significant differences between the two samples were found for daily life activities. Subjects with defective colour vision preferred daytime driving. At night, subjects with defective colour vision had difficulty identifying reflectors on the road and the rear signal lights of cars ahead of them. Conclusion: Colour-blindCalabrian subjects admitted to experiencing colour-related difficulties 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.