Tuesday, May 16, 2017

In Sharper Contrast: 30 Days of Accessibility Testing

The Ministry of Testing has declared that May should be "30 Days of Accessibility Testing". As in the days of yore when I used to take on these challenges and blog regularly, I'm in the mood to get back to doing that. Therefore, I am looking to write a post every day around this topic and as a way to address each line of their checklist.


I was away much of this past weekend, so I'm going to need to double up a couple of entries for a few days to catch back up. Thank you for your patience :).

15. Find a problem that might affect someone who is colourblind.

I have actually had a chance to interact with one of my scouts over the course of the past few years who is color-deficient and who has shown me several times how some sites are difficult for him to read because of the lack of contrast. His particular color-deficiency is called Protanomalia, so he has difficulty with seeing red or colors in the red spectrum, but it's not as pronounced a deficiency as Protanopia, which is a virtual loss of red perception. Still, even with a red deficiency, that often makes sites or apps that use red and that use colors that overlay the red as difficult to see. Thus, for me, the takeaway is that contrast is more desirable than aesthetic sense. 

I recently went back and looked at my blog and noticed that the gray to white contrast was not very strong, and after playing with my site in some color contrast tools, I decided to up the contrast and trade out orange elements for a brighter yellow hue. this matched wth white text on a dark gray background passes the first level of contrast, but I still have some issues regarding higher end contrast. 

Anyway, enough of my blathering. You probably wondered if I'd provide a resource that could help you look at color and color deficiency in a different way, right? Here's hoping I deliver on that promise. Visibone has a page dedicated to "Color Deficient Vision" and some examples to help you make choices regarding colors and color contrasts.


No comments: