This is not exactly true. Everyone has all three color receptors in their eyes (to my knowledge, but there may be cases I don't know about), but people with color blindness have an issue with the range of colors that they can see.
Each type of cone is excited by a different range of light wavelengths. Ideally, there would be a perfect separation between the red, green, and blue wavelengths with no overlap. Colorblind people have a more significant overlap between the red and green cone response range, or the green and blue. Or in the most extreme cases, all three, in which case the person would really perceive a "black and white" world devoid of color.
The way that colorblind glasses work is they act as a "notch filter", or a filter that cuts out frequencies only in the overlapping range. This is a fairly novel, quite advanced type of filter and isn't the usual "color correction" type lens you're referring to. This notch filter makes it so that the range of light that your brain usually misinterprets as the wrong color is absent, and it enhances your ability to see those real colors.
If you have 100% overlap between any cones you cannot correct it with these kinds of glasses. But in your case if you do have minor color deficiency, you might have a great experience!
HaloHowAreYa t1_ixus60b wrote
Reply to comment by TheChaosBug in TIFU by lying about me being colorblind 9 years ago. by HelpMeTHrowaway12243
This is not exactly true. Everyone has all three color receptors in their eyes (to my knowledge, but there may be cases I don't know about), but people with color blindness have an issue with the range of colors that they can see.
Each type of cone is excited by a different range of light wavelengths. Ideally, there would be a perfect separation between the red, green, and blue wavelengths with no overlap. Colorblind people have a more significant overlap between the red and green cone response range, or the green and blue. Or in the most extreme cases, all three, in which case the person would really perceive a "black and white" world devoid of color.
The way that colorblind glasses work is they act as a "notch filter", or a filter that cuts out frequencies only in the overlapping range. This is a fairly novel, quite advanced type of filter and isn't the usual "color correction" type lens you're referring to. This notch filter makes it so that the range of light that your brain usually misinterprets as the wrong color is absent, and it enhances your ability to see those real colors.
If you have 100% overlap between any cones you cannot correct it with these kinds of glasses. But in your case if you do have minor color deficiency, you might have a great experience!