Lincoln City is First Tourism Office in the State to Accommodate Color Blind Visitors

LINCOLN CITY, Ore. and BERKELEY, Calif., June 18, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Explore Lincoln City today announced a partnership with EnChroma® to enable visitors who are color blind to better enjoy its colorful scenery and renowned coastline. A state of Oregon Destination Management Organization (DMO) tasked with promoting tourism, Explore Lincoln City will permanently make special EnChroma glasses available for red-green color blind guests to borrow so they can better perceive and experience the array of colors in the area.

"Lincoln City offers everything from colorful kite festivals, outlet shopping, museums, arts and culture and casinos, to world-class outdoor activities like exploring the beach, hiking, fishing, and kayaking," said Cole Finley, Marketing Manager for Explore Lincoln City. "We are ecstatic about introducing EnChroma glasses to enhance the appreciation of colors for visitors."

While people with normal color vision see over one million shades of color, those with red-green Color Vision Deficiency (CVD) are estimated to see about 10% of hues and shades. To them, colors can appear dull, washed out and indistinguishable; purple looks blue, red seems brown, gray appears pink, and green and yellow can look similar.

"From hiking up Cascade Head to the Salmon River Estuary, to clamming in Siletz Bay, Lincoln City has so many colorful experiences," said Erik Ritchie, CEO of EnChroma. "Kudos to Explore Lincoln City for recognizing that enhancing these experiences for those with color blindness can make their visits more memorable and improve accessibility for visitors."

To launch this 'color accessibility' initiative on June 5 three local red-green color blind people traveled to Knight Park, just outside of Lincoln City, to try the EnChroma glasses and share their perspectives on the experience. They included a color blind high school student, an HVAC Technician and a landscaper. Click here to see videos of their reactions and/or to download photos.

"From the sky to the trees and the flowers, everything looks more defined," said Jacob Bowers, an HVAC Technician from Oregon who tried the glasses provided by Explore Lincoln City. "My two young kids look to me to help them identify colors. Now that I can see color more vibrantly, in a way these glasses will help me connect more with them."

One in 12 men (8%) and one in 200 women (0.5%) are color blind. With over one million tourists visiting Lincoln City annually, approximately 42,500 are color blind. Among the 30 million annual overnight visitors to the state of Oregon, nearly 1.3 million are color blind. In the US alone, 13 million people are color blind and 350 million worldwide.

Explore Lincoln City joins numerous other tourism departments in the US and Canada, and over 100 museums worldwide, in supporting color blind guests by loaning EnChroma glasses. The glasses' patented lenses are engineered with special optical filters that help people with red-green color blindness see an expanded range of visible colors. EnChroma glasses are not a cure for color blindness, work for 8 of ten red-green color blind people, and results and reaction times vary. A study by the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio illustrated the benefits of the glasses.

About Explore Lincoln City

Located less than two hours from Portland, the scenic community of Lincoln City is home to six historic districts and seven miles of pristine, walkable beaches along Oregon's central coast. The laid-back beach town boasts evergreen forests, clean air and a large freshwater lake along with a variety of shopping, dining and popular attractions. With everything from colorful kite festivals to fresh catch feasts to hand-blown glass floats, Lincoln City is one endless adventure. Explore Lincoln City promotes tourism in the Lincoln City area and helps strengthen the local economy as the trusted destination and trip planning resource. For more information, visit: explorelincolncity.com.

About EnChroma

Based in Berkeley, Calif., EnChroma produces leading-edge eyewear for color blindness and low vision, and other solutions for color vision, sold online and through Authorized Retailers worldwide. Invented in 2010, EnChroma's patented eyewear for color blindness combines the latest in color perception, neuroscience and lens innovation to improve the lives of people with color vision deficiency around the world. EnChroma received an SBIR grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It earned the 2020 Innovation Award in Life Sciences from the Bay Area's East Bay Economic Development Alliance. For more information call +1-510-497-0048 or visit enchroma.com.

Media Contacts:
Explore Lincoln City
Cole Finley
Marketing Manager
cfinley@lincolncity.org
541.921.8544

EnChroma
Kent Streeb
Vice President of Communications and Partnerships
530.908.9225
kent@enchroma.com

Media Contact

Kent Streeb, EnChroma, 1 5309089225, kent@enchroma.com, www.enchroma.com

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SOURCE EnChroma