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Recognising Colour Blind Awareness Day 2017 in sport

Colour Blind Awareness campaigners are teaming up with sporting partners across Europe to promote Colour Blind Awareness Day 2017. On 6 September, you can join in to raise awareness, ensuring more people can watch and play sport.

Example of colour blindness in football

Around 300 million people across the world are colour blind. Colour blindness (colour vision deficiency, or CVD) affects approximately 1 in 12 men (8%) and 1 in 200 women. In Britain, this means that there are approximately 2.7 million colour blind people (about 4.5% of the entire population), most of whom are male.

There are different causes of colour blindness. For the vast majority of people with without full colour vision, the condition is genetic and has been inherited from their mother, although some people become colour blind as a result of other diseases such as diabetes and multiple sclerosis. People can also acquire the condition over time due to the aging process, medication etc.

The affects of colour blindness can be extreme in sport. Providers need to consider all areas of the game, including kits, line markings and equipment. It is an important issue in sport – for players, spectators, and investors – from the grass roots through to the highest professional level. It can impact on a person’s performance and spoil the enjoyment of watching sport (spectating or on TV).

The video clip below shows that if two teams play in team kits that appear the same colour (in the right-hand section of the video), it’s almost impossible for colour blind players and spectators to tell them apart.

Watch a video example of colour blindness in football

Colour Blind Awareness is organising the Day. They are a Community Interest Company, formed for non-profit making purposes. This year, they have teamed up with other sporting partners to remove stigmas surrounding colour blindness. Together, campaigners hope more people increase conversations about being colour blind and discuss issues in school, at work, and watching and playing sport.

They hope to improve work and play environments for millions of people across the world living with colour blindness. Organisations raising awareness in sport include The Football Association, UEFA, Centre for Access to Football In Europe (CAFE) and Level Playing Field.

For last year’s Awareness Day, the campaigners introduced hashtags #Iam1in12 and #Iam1in200. For 2017 there are two more hashtags- #KickTheStigma and #KickingTheStigma.

Contact the organisers by email info@colourblindawareness.co.uk. Find out more on Facebook- ColourBlindAwareness, Twitter- @colourblindorg @cbfootballfans or Instagram @colourblindorg

Join in and raise awareness of the issues people who are colour blind face in sport. Read more personal accounts in the new FA Guidance and follow posts on Twitter @colourblindorg.