From 2 May, Harewood House Trust is proud to announce its new partnership with the EnChroma Colour Accessibility Program™, becoming the first historic country house and museum in the UK to offer specially engineered EnChroma glasses for people with colour blindness.

This initiative enables visitors with red-green colour vision deficiency – a condition affecting 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women – to experience the full vibrancy of Harewood’s collections, exhibitions, and interiors like never before. Glasses will be available to hire for free, including options for children and adults, as well as a pair that fits over prescription glasses.

The launch coincides with the opening of Austen & Turner: A Country House Encounter, allowing all visitors to appreciate the exhibition’s full palette and nuanced details.

Daltonismo: A Personal and Historical Connection

One of the first to try the glasses was José, a Harewood Member, whose first language is Spanish. He is a Mass Spectrometrist – a career that, like the work of 18th-century scientist John Dalton, revolves around analysing the elemental building blocks of matter.

In a beautiful twist of history, John Dalton was not only a pioneer of atomic theory but also colour blind himself. His name lives on in the Spanish word for colour blindness, Daltonismo.

Reflecting on the experience, José said:

“It was like someone had opened all the windows so the natural light illuminated everything. I appreciated the pictures so much more. The mirrors were definitely a surprise. I saw them completely anew!”

He continued: “My perception [of Harewood] has changed. It feels richer, and I’m aware there is so much more for me to see. I think it will make me stop and look more.”

When asked how he’d describe the experience to other colour-blind visitors, he shared:

“You’ll discover the real world you haven’t seen before. It opened my mind to see the collection in a way I’d never seen it before—in its true colours.”