Real World Implications

A person with albinism will need to be careful when out in the sun for long periods of time. The lack of pigment in the skin and eyes causes problems for a person with albinism when their in the sun. If a person with albinism is in the sun they must use a sun block with an UVA-UVB of at least 20 to prevent skin cancer. Also they have a much greater need for sunglasses to ease the pain in the eyes from too much sunlight.

A person with albinism will also need some type of reading aid (example glasses or magnifying glass) due to the problems caused by albinism in the eyes.

This is a website that gives information on Living with Albinism:
http://www.womenfitness.net/beauty/skin/albinism.htm

This is another website that gives information about Albinism:
http://www.albinism.org/index.html

Ocular Albinism

Ocular Albinism is the second most common form of albinism. Ocular albinism affects the amount of pigment in the eyes but does not significantly affect the skin or hair. Ocular albinism reduces the pigment of the iris (the colored part of the eye) and the retina (the light sensitive tissues) at the back of the eye. Ocular albinism causes severely impaired sharpness of vision and problems with combining vision from both eyes to perceive depth. Other eye problems associated with ocular albinism are rapid, involuntary eye movements; eyes that do not look in the same direction; and increase sensitivity to light.

This is a link to a picture showing the eye of a person with albinism:
http://albinism.med.umn.edu/factfig1.gif

This is a link to a picture showing the routing of nerves from the eye to the brain for a normal pigmented person and a person with albinism:
http://albinism.med.umn.edu/factfig3.gif