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Re: High Contrast Control Option

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From: Karl Groves
Date: Jan 5, 2015 9:22AM

Jordan,

It might be worth considering for a moment who needs a feature like this.
Low contrast is an issue for people with color vision problems and
people with low vision. Low vision often isn't merely a case of low
visual acuity but may rather be a manifestation of certain eye
disease, making enhanced contrast even more important.

High contrast, such as what you're suggesting, benefits those users.
But I don't believe in site-specific assistive technology like this.
If someone *needs* high contrast, they need it not only on your site,
but every site they visit as well as every other application they use
on their device.


On Mon, Jan 5, 2015 at 10:30 AM, Jordan Wilson
< <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> We are currently planning a site and one of the options we¹ve chosen to
> implement is a High Contrast control in accordance with WCAG 2.0 Technique
> G174
>
> This allows us some greater design/color flexibility for the site which we
> were having difficulty with because the brand colors are slightly under
> contrast. I wanted to ask the list if they had any suggestions or cautions
> on implementing this technique.
>
> You can see examples of the technique at these two sites:
> http://www.mills-peninsula.org/accessibility.html
>
> http://www.northeastmedicalgroup.org/
>
>
> The High Contrast button is in the top right of both pages, selecting it
> changes all CSS colors in the site to a separate high contrast version
> (the same site, just different CSS)
>
> To make sure that our High Contrast option is accessible to users, we
> thought to implement four considerations:
>
> 1. Ensure the switch control is a prominent, permanent and high contrast
> element on the page.
> 2. Place the control toward the beginning of the tab order so that
> keyboard users will find it efficiently
> 3. Feature the option on the site accessibility page, so that users are
> aware of it and understand how to use it.
> 4. Cookie the setting, so that users who enable it default to High
> Contrast on return visits.
>
> Are there any opinions of users out there about implementing this
> technique? Does anyone have experience / recommendations for implementing
> it properly?
>
> Here¹s the link to the WCAG description of the technique:
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2014/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20140916/G174
>
>
> Thanks for you help!
>
> > > --

Karl Groves
www.karlgroves.com
@karlgroves
http://www.linkedin.com/in/karlgroves
Phone: +1 410.541.6829

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