Colorblind people have options to enjoy fall foliage in Georgia

Caption

A photo taken near Helen, Ga., attributed to Becky Cates, during Georgia's 2024 fall foliage season.

Credit: Becky Cates / Georgia Department of Natural Resources

Georgia State Parks are introducing colorblind glasses at three locations to help people with colorblindness better experience the parks.

The announcement comes just in time for peak fall foliage season in many parts of the state.

Cloudland Canyon, Sweetwater Creek and Skidaway Island State Parks have the glasses, which are provided by the company that makes them, Enchroma.

Amicalola Falls State Park also has two Enchroma-adapted viewers installed at the base of its waterfall.

Windy Cruz of the Georgia Center for the Visually Impaired said the glasses can help the nearly 1-in-12 men and 1-in-200 women who have trouble distinguishing colors.

“It helps them with activities such as gardening, matching clothes and graphic design,” Cruz said of the glasses. “Sometimes it does help in their job roles or just with their activities of daily living.”

The company says its glasses are scientifically proven to enhance color vision for most people with red-green blindness.

Cruz says there are also phone apps that do much the same thing.

But don’t expect miracles with them, she cautioned.

“Nothing is really a cure for colorblindness,” Cruz said. “It gives you more of an improved contrast of what the eyes are not seeing.”

And it’s already too late for fall color at higher elevations, where trees are bare and past their peak.

But a warm and dry fall has given Georgians a later-than-usual start to the “leaf peeping” season.

“Cloudland Canyon still has pretty autumn shades, especially down in the canyon,” said Kim Hatcher, Public Affairs Coordinator at Georgia State Parks & Historic Sites.  “Sweetwater Creek is just now starting to show fall color, which means there’s plenty of time to enjoy the changing season.  We need cold but not freezing nights to jumpstart the most vibrant change.”

You can track Georgia’s changing fall colors at a couple of websites, including the Georgia State Park’s Leaf Watch and Explore Fall.