My EnChromas aren’t sexy looking and they were early-adopter expensive. They came with a carrying sack, cleaning cloth, and an instruction manual. The manual starts with a number of grim imperatives, like don’t touch the special lens, and one that most certainly will be ignored: “Removing the eyewear, even momentarily, will tend to reduce the effectiveness of the color enhancement.” You won’t be able to stop yourself from peeking under the glasses over and over again to verify your favorite gray sweater is actually a dusty rose. It is.
Unexpectedly, the glasses make me a safer driver. Colorblind people react significantly slower to red signals, and there are a number of countries where we can’t get drivers licenses. With my Enchroma sunglasses, I can see the three distinct colors of a stoplight for the first time, and red stop signs and lit brake lights jump out with a new urgency. You’d think insurance companies would be all over this, but not so much.
I wouldn’t say the glasses are life changing, but they certainly do enhance it. Since I’ve started wearing the glasses, I’ve been carrying a small card showing the colors I see versus normal vision:
Enchroma’s glasses prices have come down considerably and they have a lot more styles since I got mine. They all come with a month trial period, and even if you don’t end up buying them, you’ll still have a month’s worth of candy-colored memories.