Achromatopsia Simulator

Developers: Jialin Wu, Zach Clothier, Katie Hirsh, and Emile Wolfe 

This simulator is to help educate people on Achromatopsia, a rare form of blindness, by putting you in the shoes of someone with the condition and accomplishing simple tasks that are more difficult for achromats. 

What is Achromatopsia?

Achromatopsia is very rare genetic condition that effects the cone cells in a the retina, impacting a person's ability to process color. 

The condition comes in two forms; Complete and Incomplete. Complete Achromatopsia is when the cone cells are completely nonfunctioning, causing a person to only see in black, white, and varying shades of gray. Incomplete has some function in the cone cells allowing for some color differentiation. Between both forms of the condition, it impacts roughly 1 in 40,000 people.

This simulator is replicating Complete Achromatopsia.

Symptoms of Achromatopsia:

Complete Colorblindness -  All colors are seen in various shades of black, white, and gray. This makes differentiating certain colors nearly impossible, certain colors such as blue and green or brown and red are nearly identical. 

Hemeralopia - Decreased visual activity in bright light. A room with the lights on has the same level of brightness as a sunny day, and being outside in the sun causes complete blindness. Most achromats wear tinted shades to deal with this. Achromatopsia has been given the nickname "Day blindness" because of this.

Photophobia - Discomfort in bright light. The feeling someone goes through when suddenly going from a dark room to a bright one is how achromats feel in regular lighting situations.

Nystagmus - Involuntary eye movement. This is usually the first sign of Achromatopsia in infants. 

Blindness - On average, vision is around 20/200 making Achromatopsia considered a form of legal blindness. Due to the hemeralopia, this gets worse the more light there is.

For more info: https://eyewiki.aao.org/Achromatopsia