Gift opens eyes to color spectrum

By Jennifer Eisenbart

Editor

Growing up, Tristian Castleman didn’t know what he wasn’t seeing.

It took until the Virginia native got to Shepherds College in Union Grove to begin dealing with the fact he was color blind.

A first-year student at the post-secondary school for people with intellectual disabilities, Castleman was asked by a teacher to tell her what color the lettuce in front of him was.

“I thought it was brown, lima-green yellow,” said Castleman.

Now, Castleman can see the lettuce is a red color, thanks to the donation of both indoor and outdoor color-blind lens given to Tristian by an anonymous donor. The glasses are made by EnChroma, a company that specializes in making glasses for those with color blindness.

Castleman is about to finish his first year at the college, majoring in the culinary arts field. He and his mother are amazed at the generosity of total strangers.

“You and I can see 100 hues of a color,” said his mother, Stephanie. “He’s limited to about 20.”

The first glasses were presented to Tristian over the winter break, and he received the indoor pair this spring.

The glasses by EnChroma were discovered, essentially, by accident. Don McPherson, a PhD in glass science, was working on protective eyewear for surgeons doing laser surgery.

As Kent Streeb, director of marketing for EnChroma, explained, the glasses started disappearing. McPherson found out those glasses were enhancing color spectrums. McPherson was at an Ultimate Frisbee tournament with a friend, who was color blind and tried the glasses – and could suddenly see the orange cones and the green grass.

From there, EnChroma began research with National Institute of Health SBIR grants, and developed the glasses. However, the retail cost is anywhere from $200 to $700.

For a family that had to raise money just to get Tristian to Shepherds College, the cost was prohibitive.

An anonymous donor came forward, though, to get Tristian the glasses. From then, it’s been an exploration of all the various colorful incidents he was missing.

“It’s just like a new experience,” Tristian explained. For example, he’s now able to do various exercises in class. One involves cards that have a color spelled out – but in a different color than what the word is.

For instance, the word “black” may be spelled out, but students are required to say the color that word is printed in – such as orange or red.

He’s gotten a chance to experience the various colors in his culinary arts classes, and distinguish between what was formerly brown into shades of red and orange.

Perhaps his most joyous experience, though, is seeing the colors of the sunset.

“I can see the blue and the orange, and can see the sun going before,” he said, adding that he is grateful for the gift.

“I just feel great that someone took their time and their money to buy a pair of glasses to see the true colors,” Tristian explained. “To see the colors I couldn’t see before.”