MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — Montgomery Parks wants to help color-blind visitors experience all of nature’s hues.
The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, Montgomery Parks, teamed up with EnChroma to bring hues and shades to people diagnosed with color blindness. Montgomery Parks will loan EnChroma glasses to visitors so they can experience the many colors of nature.
“We believe that everyone should be able to experience the natural beauty in our parks,” said Jennene Blakely, Montgomery Parks program access manager.
In 2021, Maryland welcomed 35.2 million visitors to parks across the state, an estimated 1.5 million of whom were color-blind. People with normal color vision can see more than a million shades of color, the color-blind can only see 10% of hues and shades.
This results in colors appearing dull, and difficult to discern, reds appearing brown; greens as tan or yellow, pink looking gray. But, with these glasses, visitors can say “Yesterday my life was duller, now everything’s technicolor” as they enjoy the vibrant colors and details nature has to offer. This is what dreams are made of.
“It is inspiring that this initiative by Montgomery Parks will enable thousands of color-blind people to see the reds, greens, oranges and maroons in Maryland’s fall leaves, and enjoy other colorful scenes in nature, for the first time with our glasses,” said Erik Ritchie, CEO of EnChroma.
To celebrate this partnership Ray’s Meadow Local Park in Chevy Chase invited six local color-blind people to enjoy Birdability Week. The participants included a 14-year-old middle school student.
“Everything is so beautiful,” said Seth Heyer, “I had no idea it was all so colorful!”
Visitors can borrow glasses free of charge at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland. For details on how to reserve the glasses, please call (301) 495-2581.
For those outside of Maryland, these glasses are now being offered at over 50 state and national parks across 20 states. Now color-blind visitors can see how nature paints with all the colors of the wind.
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