AACHEN, Germany & BERKELEY, Calif.—Color blind students and staff at RWTH Aachen University, Germany’s largest technical university, can now borrow EnChroma color blind glasses on campus to help them overcome the obstacles to learning and everyday life that color vision deficiency (CVD) poses. One in 12 men (8 percent) and one in 200 women (0.5 percent) are color blind—approximately 3.6 million in Germany, 30 million in Europe and 350 million worldwide, according to EnChroma. With over 47,000 students, and nearly 10,000 faculty and staff, an estimated 2,400 people at RWTH Aachen University are color blind.

"Color vision deficiency can cause challenges for color blind students in their studies," said Erik Ritchie, CEO of EnChroma. "We are very pleased that VORSCHUB at RWTH Aachen University is making its campus more accessible for those with color vision deficiency by loaning EnChroma glasses. We hope that more universities and schools will follow RWTH Aachen’s example to support color blind students and adapt learning materials to avoid colors that are problematic for them to see."
 
RWTH Aachen University joins the University of Hamburg as the first European universities to align with numerous prestigious universities in the U.S. in supporting the needs of color blind students via the EnChroma Color Accessibility Program. This program is already helping color blind students at Boston University, North Carolina State University, Penn State University, Alfred University and others.
 
Nearly 200 public institutions—including major museums, libraries, parks, gardens and tourism departments—offer the glasses to color blind patrons and students. Click here to learn more from VMAIL about the EnChroma Color Accessibility Program.
 
Special optical filters in EnChroma glasses help color blind people perceive a wider range of colors and to see colors more vividly, clearly and distinctly. A study by the University of California, Davis, and INSERM, the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research, confirmed the effectiveness of EnChroma glasses. A separate recent study in the scientific publication Eye-Nature also highlights the benefits of the glasses for people with color vision deficiencies.