WebAIM - Web Accessibility In Mind

E-mail List Archives

Re: Minimum contrast edge case?

for

From: glen walker
Date: Apr 19, 2018 10:00AM

G18 is a "sufficient technique", and while the definition of a "sufficient
technique" says "If you use the sufficient techniques for a given criterion
correctly and it is accessibility-supported for your users, you can be
confident that you met the success criterion
<https://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/2016/WD-UNDERSTANDING-WCAG20-20160105/understanding-techniques.html#ut-understanding-techniques-sufficient-head>",
it also says "The basis for determining conformance to WCAG 2.0 is the
success criteria, not the techniques
<https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG20/quickref/20160105/#about-techs>".

In your particular case, I'm not sure G18 applies to your situation. It
sounds more like G174: Providing a control with a sufficient contrast ratio
that allows users to switch to a presentation that uses sufficient contrast
<http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/2016/WD-WCAG20-TECHS-20160105/G174>;.

If you allow the color scheme to change *and* the tool that lets you make
that change is accessible (including meeting the color contrast ratio),
then you're ok. If the tool itself is hidden, then the tool would seem to
fail WCAG, which means your page does *not* meet 1.4.3. But we'd need more
information on what you mean by "hidden". Is it visually hidden such as
display:none? Is it hidden because it's covered up by another object? Is
it hidden because it's in an expand/collapse section?

Separate from the tool being hidden, you mention the color preferences are
predefined. That in itself is more of a usability issue and not an
accessibility issue. If the predetermined colors meet 1.4.3, then you're
ok. If you don't like the colors, that's a design decision.

Glen

On Thu, Apr 19, 2018 at 3:03 AM, Isabel Holdsworth <
<EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:

> Apologies but here's another "does this fail WCAG2" question? I really
> appreciate you guys' time and wisdom in answering these, and hopefully
> it'll clarify things for others as well.
>
> I'm working on a web application that fails 1.4.3 (minimum contrast).
> To get around this, they provide a tool that allows users to choose
> from a whole host of colour schemes, some of which are conformant.
>
> But in one particular scenario, the tool is hidden and each user's
> colour preference is predefined and set at supervisor level and can't
> be changed by the user.
>
> It's frustrating that they've taken the ability to choose a colour
> scheme away from the user, but I guess their alternative still passes
> under sufficient technique G18 (
> https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/G18.html ).
>
> I think I've just answered my own question, but I'd really appreciate
> your thoughts.
> > > > >