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Re: color change button?

for

From: Tomlins Diane
Date: Sep 28, 2017 11:01AM

Thanks Jordan, great feedback and recommendations.

With the 'exception rather than the rule' thing - knowing our division people, if one is allowed to have it, others will want it as their default too :-/ Maintaining the additional CSS, adding to our already hefty CSS footprint, is a development and maintenance concern. Using cookies (which makes perfect sense) adds a little extra development time (we have a huge platform and codebase).

These are some of the things we'd need to consider should we go with this. Our developers are already committed up to their eyeballs in every sprint for several quarters in advance. Obviously this may need some further discussion with management.

What would be interesting - attach analytics to that style switcher button -- and see what kind of story the numbers tell.

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


-----Original Message-----
From: WebAIM-Forum [mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Jordan Wilson
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2017 11:14 AM
To: WebAIM Discussion List < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [WebAIM] color change button?

Using a CSS style switcher is an acceptable solution covered as a success criteria in the WCAG spec.
https://www.w3.org/TR/2016/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20161007/G174

To be clear this is not the best solution, having a fully compliant site by default would be ideal, but it would be wrong for our community not to realize the importance of color in identity and brand and the value that color brings to design and differentiation. A11y will only prosper when we take the needs of others seriously and adapt our solutions to help them balance their needs and compliance.

IF you are going to use a color switcher I do have some recommendations:

-Explain to your team that this is an exception and not a rule. If they do a brand refresh in the future they should consider color contrast requirements when they do so to avoid doing this in the future. Any modern branding team should be designing for digital and including color contrast standards.

-Make sure that your chosen colors are as close as possible to compliance. If you're brand colors are 4.3 to 1 (instead of 4.5) this may be a good workaround for you. If you're trying to use light yellow on white, you're missing the point.

-Especially avoid using brand colors in body copy and small text. Stick with high contrast for your main content text.

-Make sure your Color switcher is readily available and fully accessible. It should be a permanent feature at the top of the page, accessible via keyboard. The color switcher itself must provide appropriate color contrast and keyboard accessibility,

-Offer a cookie to save settings across pages and through multiple sessions - once a user chooses color contrast on/off, consider using a cookie so the user get the chosen mode every visit.

-Create a plan to maintain the high contrast CSS sheet over time - every new style will need to be evaluated and the high contrast sheet maintained. If your contrast issues exist on your site when High Contrast is on, you are out of compliance.

Jordan


On 9/28/17, 11:06 AM, "WebAIM-Forum on behalf of Sarah Ferguson" < <EMAIL REMOVED> on behalf of <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

It can be considered discrimination by not providing the same experience,
if something has to change for you to be able to use it. I'm not saying
that would hold up in court, but it's enough for a claim to be made.
Especially in this world of social media, a claim is enough to plummet
stock prices.

Sarah Ferguson
Web Accessibility Specialist
Department of Digital Communications
Brandeis University *|* 781.736.4259
www.brandeis.edu/web-accessibility


On Thu, Sep 28, 2017 at 10:55 AM, Patrick H. Lauke < <EMAIL REMOVED> >
wrote:

> On 28/09/2017 15:01, Tomlins Diane wrote:
> [...]
>
>> I really think our best approach here is the discrimination piece, the
>> possibility of legal action. It needs to be compliant to begin with.
>>
>
> First answer to any discrimination piece: we're not discriminating, there
> IS a switcher. If you need better contrast, use that. There is no
> discrimination here. You can argue that "there shouldn't need to be two
> separate views/ways", but providing an equivalent alternative is perfectly
> fine and not discrimination.
>
> P
> --
> Patrick H. Lauke
>
> www.splintered.co.uk | https://github.com/patrickhlauke
> http://flickr.com/photos/redux/ | http://redux.deviantart.com
> twitter: @patrick_h_lauke | skype: patrick_h_lauke
> > > > >