WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: color change button?

for

From: Tomlins Diane
Date: Sep 28, 2017 8:01AM

> On 27/09/2017 23:11, Beattie, Allan wrote:
>" As Eric Meyer says, this kind of thing makes me scream internally into the void."

Allan, love that quote - that is EXACTLY how I felt when I heard this person's objections!
>" yes: style switchers were all the rage about 15 years ago." -- Forgot about those... ancient history!

> - the default colour scheme is accessible, with the marketing-friendly version behind the toggle.
> That way, they get what they asked for, and everyone wins :)

I like that idea, unfortunately, I have to agree with Patrick, it is highly unlikely they will never agree with that approach. The whole problem is that their default color scheme is NOT accessible.

Karl, agree 100%!
>.. healthcare brand should be focused on helping people rather than the aesthetics, so changing brand colours shouldn't be a big deal. That said, some >designers and marketers are more obsessed with "beauty" and forget that if it's not usable, it's not beautiful.

My questions to this person suggesting the style switcher is: 'are people coming to your websites because they are pretty.. or are they looking for information and healthcare services??? Do you really think the colors are the first thing on their minds??' Of course, the answer to both is NO!

To Jeremy's point - I do wear glasses, but at my age (I'm a Boomer), I already notice a change in perception of color contrast due to aging. Our UX team has made changes to fonts and font sizes so that we are not using thin fonts and that we're using a minimum size of 16px.

I really think our best approach here is the discrimination piece, the possibility of legal action. It needs to be compliant to begin with.

Thanks!

Diane R Tomlins
HCA IT&S | Digital Media
Accessibility SME

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Beattie, Allan
Sent: Wednesday, September 27, 2017 5:12 PM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [WebAIM] color change button?

Hi Diane

As Eric Meyer says, this kind of thing makes me scream internally into the void.

It never ceases to amaze me that marketing people, whose job entails helping the business to succeed by reaching more people, can so often be lacking in basic empathy.

"I find the colours ugly, so to hell with the many thousands of people for whom it's a barrier."

To answer your question "has anyone ever done such a thing?", the answer is yes: style switchers were all the rage about 15 years ago.

Jeremy Keith has one on his blog - https://adactio.com/ Léonie has one too - https://tink.uk/

As Patrick says, it'll be more work, but personally I would go ahead and build it, with one key proviso:

- the default colour scheme is accessible, with the marketing-friendly version behind the toggle.

That way, they get what they asked for, and everyone wins :)


Best of luck,
Allan

--
Allan A Beattie
Senior Web Developer

IT Services | University of Aberdeen
e: <EMAIL REMOVED> | t: +44 (0)1224 27 4486

-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Tomlins Diane
Sent: Wednesday 27 September 2017 22:21
To: WebAIM Discussion List
Subject: [WebAIM] color change button?

Hi everyone,
We are working on the branding colors for our many divisions' websites to meet the Level AA contrast ratios. As you might expect, some marketing people are unhappy about this and pushing back. In most cases, the color change is fairly subtle, it's not like these are drastic color changes (except for one site that uses a screaming orange!)

So, one of those folks pushing back has suggested that we provide a mechanism that would allow a visitor to change the colors to our compliant colors if they need it. Our answer to that idea is that it's not an acceptable solution, the colors need to be accessible to begin with. This person went as far as to suggest that we are making their sites ugly just to cater to "the 1% who need it".. I was kind of gob-smacked by that response, especially when this person goes on to say " we take accessibility very serious but..." - smh.

They are now asking for facts or something to back up WHY this color change button cannot be used. I provided quite a few statistics to refute the 1% comment as they clearly have no idea how many people are affected and can benefit from good color contrast.

Anyway, I'm interested in your input/opinion on this idea.. has anyone ever done such a thing?? I think I know what the arguments are against it, but some of you may have different ones :)

Thank you!
Diane R Tomlins
HCA IT&S | Digital Media
Accessibility SME


The University of Aberdeen is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013683.
Tha Oilthigh Obar Dheathain na charthannas clàraichte ann an Alba, Ãir. SC013683.