The silent struggles of color blind students in the UK

Around 450,000 children are being failed by the UK education system because they have a special educational need and disability (SEND) that is effectively unrecognised by most schools and local education authorities, an author has warned.

Supporting Color Blindness in Education and Beyond, by author Marie Difolco, shines a spotlight on a commonly-overlooked SEND in modern classrooms: color blindness (also known as color vision deficiency, or CVD). She also warns that many myths surround this condition, with many people believing it just means not being able to tell the difference between red and green, but color blindness affects how a person sees the whole visible color spectrum.

Despite CVD affecting one in 12 boys and one in 200 girls (equating to one child in every average class of 30), Difolco says most schools across the UK are failing to identify all their children with this SEND. This leaves children to struggle in silence and even lose marks on exam papers, she explains.

Routine screening for color blindness was quietly removed from the Healthy Child Screening Programme in 2009, based on a review that relied on outdated and incorrect information and, through no fault of their own, teachers aren’t usually trained to spot the signs or to support it, often reporting they’ve never taught a color blind child.

Most children affected by this SEND are boys, so they’re persistently exposed to in-direct sex-discrimination due to common teaching practices that rely on color.

Further, anyone with color blindness in the UK is not adequately protected by the 2010 Equality Act. The result? Discrimination, missed opportunities, and a system that is fundamentally failing to support them.”

Marie Difolco, Author

Difolco, whose son lives with severe CVD, has spent the last decade campaigning for change. She works alongside experts at Newcastle University and volunteers for the color Blind Awareness organisation.

In Supporting color Blindness she explains how the condition is largely misunderstood, as there are many different types and the severity of the condition can range from mild to acute.

Currently there is no universal provision in schools to support or identify color blind children despite color blindness being a disadvantage right across the curriculum, even in sport. Without intervention a child with color blindness will struggle with colored labels, charts and materials throughout the whole of their education. However, Difolco suggests that the majority of color blind students do not need intensive one-to-one support, simply that schools need to be resourced to understand and implement best practice.

She says: “Children with this SEND are being excluded from fully accessing education. The implications of color blindness are far reaching and need to be addressed with urgency. This book doesn’t just raise awareness and offer advice on best practice-;it issues a call to action, because without urgent changes, hundreds of thousands of children will continue to face disadvantage affecting their learning, safety, self-esteem, and future prospects.”

She also argues that the impacts of not supporting children with color blindness extend far beyond learning. Difolco points to the emotional and social impact on young people who may feel different to their peers and the workplace discrimination some color blind adults, including teachers, might face.

To address these issues head-on, Difolco suggests: “Mandatory screening for this SEND must be reinstated with mandatory training for teachers on how to support students with color blindness being needed. An update to the 2010 Equality Act guidance to protect individuals with CVD is also essential. This will ensure all organisations recognize color blindness as a protected characteristic, giving those living with the condition an understanding of what they are entitled to in terms of reasonable adjustments.

“The public should be extremely concerned that one defective review can have such a devastating impact on the lives of many thousands of children. As such the government has a duty to act swiftly to protect the rights of those who live with this SEND and they need to consider how they evaluate expert reviews in future.”