News.
Experience Yorkshire’s most vibrant country house in full colour
30th May 2025
Harewood House Trust becomes the first historic country house and museum in the UK to offer EnChroma glasses to visitors with colour vision deficiency.
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.
Visitors can also explore the exhibition through a range of multi-sensory resources. Tactile pieces by artist Sam Metz invite closer engagement with key objects, while evocative audio descriptions, written by Chikodi Nwauwu and voiced by members of the Harewood House Trust team, offer rich storytelling for all to enjoy. In partnership with Topp Language Solutions, a series of British Sign Language (BSL) interpretations have also been created, offering further ways for visitors to connect with the exhibition.
Large print guides are available, and sensory backpacks specially designed to support visitors who may experience sensory overload, can be borrowed from the Entrance Hall.
These initiatives reflect Harewood’s ongoing commitment to creating a more inclusive and accessible experience for all, ensuring that every visitor can enjoy the full colour, texture and story of this vibrant country house.
Daltonismo: A Personal and Historical Connection
One of the first to try the glasses was 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, the Member 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.”
How EnChroma Glasses Work
EnChroma’s patented lenses use advanced optical filters to expand the range and vibrancy of colours seen by those with red-green colour blindness. While most people can see over a million shades of colour, colour blind individuals may only see about 10% of that spectrum.
The world can appear dull or muddled: reds can seem brown, purples appear blue, and greens may be confused with yellows. This affects how people see nature, navigate everyday tasks, and experience art and design.
By wearing EnChroma glasses, users often report a life-changing shift in visual clarity and colour contrast—transforming their experience of the world around them.
A Commitment to Inclusion
This initiative is part of Harewood House Trust’s wider commitment to inclusion, accessibility, and innovation across the heritage sector.
“We’re proud to be leading the way in making historic spaces more inclusive,” said Zoë Hughes, Head of Public Programme at Harewood House Trust. “Colour is a vital part of how we experience art, history, and place—and everyone deserves the chance to see it fully.”
‘Austen and Turner: A Country House Encounter’ is at Harewood House from Friday 2 May to Sunday 19 October 2025. For more information visit https://harewood.org/events/austen-and-turner-a-country-house-encounter/
Access Resources: https://harewood.org/visit/access/a-country-house-encounter-access/