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Re: Using high contrast styles in a site

for

From: Tom Livingston
Date: Sep 12, 2019 11:24AM

Thank you for the information. The site that was shown to me was:

https://www.subway.com/en-us

And I'm thinking this isn't true high contrast. In most cases their
idea of high contrast is questionable.

Thanks again for the info. If others have additional info, keep it
coming! I appreciate it!


On Thu, Sep 12, 2019 at 11:59 AM glen walker < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> Technically, you are allowed to have a low contrast page by default as long
> as there's a widget on the page to switch to minimally passing contrast
> colors as long as the widget itself has sufficient contrast by default.
> See the "sufficient technique" G174 -
> https://www.w3.org/WAI/WCAG21/Techniques/general/G174
>
> However, even though that is allowed, I would not encourage it. If your
> default page passes all contrast minimums except for a few spots on the
> page, then maybe having a widget might be ok, but strive to have as much of
> the page satisfy the contrast as possible.
>
> Your specific question talked about "high contrast". This might be a
> terminology thing but "high contrast" is typically a AAA requirement of
> having a minimal contrast ratio of 7:1. The AA requirement is to have a
> contrast of 4.5:1. But I'm thinking you were using the term "high
> contrast" to just mean a larger contrast than the default page.
>
> Having a true "high contrast" (7:1) feature is a great thing to have and
> goes beyond what is required by AA. For those that are curious, an example
> of a high contrast feature can be found on the State of California website,
> https://www.ca.gov/. There's a "settings" menu near the top of the page
> and when you expand it, there's a "high contrast" option that uses mostly
> yellow text on a black background (although embedded social media content
> doesn't seem to be affected).
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 12, 2019 at 9:09 AM Tom Livingston < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
> > Hello list,
> >
> > A coworker found an example on a website where a user could switch the
> > site to use a high contrast mode. Does having a high contrast mode
> > on a web site allow for the creation of content that initially doesn't pass
> > color contrast tests?
> >
> > For example, if a brand color doesn't pass contrast tests, could it
> > still be used as is in the 'normal' version of the site but then
> > altered to pass in a high contrast mode (via css). Is this treatment
> > acceptable from an accessibility stand point?
> >
> > I am looking for factual information to be able to use against this
> > type of thing as it doesn't feel right to me personally, but if this
> > type of thing is acceptable then I need to be able to tell designers I
> > work with that they need to always plan for a high contrast mode.
> >
> > Any help would be appreciated.
> >

--

Tom Livingston | Senior Front End Developer

#663399