Message from Yasuyo Takayanagi about color vision

Color vision problems are problems of individual rights. To avoid discrimination, let’s use the term “color special vision”!

Many detailed studies on color vision have been published, including studies in biophysics (1987), molecular biology (1986), and the phenomenon of X chromosome inactivation in women (1961). Even so, in Japan the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture (currently the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology), the Japanese Ophthalmological Society, and the Japan Ophthalmologists Association continue to overrate a set of pseudoisochromatic plates developed in 1916 for use in testing men for the military draft. They have used this test as a measure of ability in daily life for the people of Japan, fostering conditions for rights abuses in society. This website was planned with several purposes in mind. The first is to help people understand color vision problems in Japan from the perspectives of public health and social medicine. The second is to release all Japanese people from the misplaced confidence in pseudoisochromatic plates. And finally we hope to help make it so that all people who misread such plates are given opportunities to have their abilities assessed in specific practical settings and can live positively and with gratitude to their ancestors, especially their mothers, without being held back by issues related to genetics.

About color vision

• What is the purpose of health checks?
• What is the essence of the color vision problem in Japan?
• Changes in who undergoes color vision tests in school health checks
• Who performs the color vision test in schools?
• The start of my research into color vision
• Use of the general Ishihara color vision test for schools
• Presence or absence of certain genes
• Stories of lost confidence and genetic problems by people with color vision deficiency from their experiences with the Ishihara test
• Barriers due to presumptions regarding color vision deficiency
• Problems with the Ishihara test
• Reconsidering the color vision test included in general health checks
• Tests of how elementary school students who need special consideration see color
• It is not necessary to know whether there are any children with color special vision in a class
• Test charts used by school nurses
• The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has not issued any directions for school nurses. Have students consult a doctor
• Keep results of Color Mate Test in health records
• How to tell people about color special vision
• Employment rejection in schools and companies
• Follow-up for people with color vision deficiency

Recent news

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• 2015/07/18「色覚異常」と学校の支援について講演いたしました
• 2015/07/11『障害者保障具支給制度について』口演いたしました
• 2015/07/08色覚異常と弱視児童生徒のための教科書について講演いたしました

講演・活動

寄せられた感想

Books by Yasuyo Takayanagi

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  What Teachers Should Know: Common Sense about Color Vision

  Pasuteru Shobou 1999

  Download
• 

  Understanding Color Mates

  June 10, 2014
  Hamajima Shoten Publishers

  Download
• 

  Color Vision Deficiency Is Not a Disability

  Koubunken Co., Ltd., June 1996
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  Barrier-Free Color Manual: A Guide to Using Colors to Avoid Confusion in People with Color Vision Deficiency

  (Joint authorship) Pasuteru Shobou 1998
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  The Color Mate Test, a Color Vision Test for Schools

  Japan Color Research Institute
  First edition April 1995
  Third edition April 2012
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  People with Color Vision Deficiency, Stand Up and Fight!

  Shufunotomo Co., Ltd., 1988
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  “Colorblindness,” the Arbitrary Disability

  The Asahi Shimbun Company, June 2002
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  “Colorblindness,” the Arbitrary Disability (Revised Edition)

  The Asahi Shimbun Company, August 2014

  Download