It was an emotional moment for an Iowa fourth-grader when he opened his eyes to see a whole new world of colour, and it was all thanks to a pair of special glasses.
Cayson Irlbeck has been colour blind since birth and was unable to decipher between blues and purples as well as red and greens until now.
The Irlbeck family videotaped the moment Cayson put on the glasses, and it was tears of joy as he hugged his dad when he was asked if the glasses worked.
“It was instant,” Cayson told CBS affiliate KCCI. “I knew right away something had changed and just how bright everything was.”
In the home video, Cayson can be seen excitedly naming all the colours of the Frisbees he had laid down on the grass.
“That was so amazing,” Cayson said.
“It was so colorful. It was weird because I had never seen those colors before, but I kind of knew what they were. I don’t know. It was just awesome.”
With some perseverance and research on the internet, the Irlbeck family found the California based EnChroma Company that manufactures the glasses.
The US$300 glasses use an optical filter to remove certain wavelengths of light enabling people with colour blindness to identify colours better, but the glasses only had a 50 per cent chance of working.
For Cayson’s father, it was money well spent.
“Just to be able to realize that all of a sudden a whole new world opened up for him is just obviously very emotional,” Aaron Irlbeck told KCCI.
Cayson said he wears the glasses at home and on drives so he can see the stop lights.
The glasses have certainly made the boy’s view of the world a little more colourful.
“That day changed my life,” Cayson said.