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Thread: icons and color contrast
Number of posts in this thread: 9 (In chronological order)
From: Joan Preston
Date: Fri, Dec 16 2016 9:46AM
Subject: icons and color contrast
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Hi all,
I wanted to get your thought on icons that will be used for apps on smartphones. The icon will be used for an associated program for the university, but the color contrast does not meet 4.5:1 and at 48px x 48px, it is hard to read. The icon is not a logo, but uses branding colors. Should this icon meet the color contrast ratio or be exempt?
Per the W3C's, Logotypes: Text that is part of a logo or brand name has no minimum contrast requirement. However, corporate visual guidelines beyond logo and logotype are not included in the exception.
Thanks for your help.
Joan Preston
Web Accessibility Coordinator
ITS - California State University, Long Beach
562.985.1490
From: John Foliot
Date: Fri, Dec 16 2016 10:04AM
Subject: Re: icons and color contrast
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Hi Joan,
The answer depends, I think, on which lens you are looking through. There
is no legal or "standards" mandate for color contrast on icons today
(although work on WCAG 2.1 hopes to address that), but I would argue that
just as text (and link text) has a minimum color contrast requirement, so
too should icons that are essentially "calls to action" (a.k.a. "similar
to" link text) and so from a usability/accessibility perspective I would
argue that making your icons meet a color contrast ratio of at least 3:1
(but ideally 4.5:1) *SHOULD* be an internal requirement, but as of today
there is no legal requirement to do so.
HTH
JF
On Fri, Dec 16, 2016 at 10:46 AM, Joan Preston < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I wanted to get your thought on icons that will be used for apps on
> smartphones. The icon will be used for an associated program for the
> university, but the color contrast does not meet 4.5:1 and at 48px x 48px,
> it is hard to read. The icon is not a logo, but uses branding colors.
> Should this icon meet the color contrast ratio or be exempt?
>
> Per the W3C's, Logotypes: Text that is part of a logo or brand name has no
> minimum contrast requirement. However, corporate visual guidelines beyond
> logo and logotype are not included in the exception.
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
> Joan Preston
> Web Accessibility Coordinator
> ITS - California State University, Long Beach
> 562.985.1490
>
>
> > > > >
--
John Foliot
Principal Accessibility Strategist
Deque Systems Inc.
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
Advancing the mission of digital accessibility and inclusion
From: Moore,Michael (Accessibility) (HHSC)
Date: Fri, Dec 16 2016 10:10AM
Subject: Re: icons and color contrast
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I think that the question is simpler than does it meet the accessibility standard. Just ask them if they would like people to be able to see it. Low contrast icons will be missed or difficult to find for more people than just those with vision impairments when working in many mobile environments - like outside.
If they are not worried whether people can see them the next question would be why are they there?
Mike Moore
EIR (Electronic Information Resoources) Accessibility Coordinator
Texas Health and Human Services Commission
Civil Rights Office
(512) 438-3431 (Office)
Making electronic information and services accessible to people with disabilities is everyone's job. I am here to help.
From: JP Jamous
Date: Fri, Dec 16 2016 10:16AM
Subject: Re: icons and color contrast
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1. Does it have important information relative to the operation of the app?
2. What type of text does it have in it?
From: JP Jamous
Date: Fri, Dec 16 2016 10:17AM
Subject: Re: icons and color contrast
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Amen to that one.
From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Fri, Dec 16 2016 10:58AM
Subject: Re: icons and color contrast
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Low contrast text and icons minimizes one thing, the number of users
who like your webpage or app. ;)
(quote borrowed from twitter, slightly modified).
WCAG 1.4.3 only requires text and images of text to have the 4.5:1
ratio. If the icon has no text in it, it is exempt (this is the
requirement that is being addressed in future versions of WCAG, or so
I understand).
If it has text in it that it is not logo text, then it applies.
On 12/16/16, JP Jamous < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Amen to that one.
>
>
From: chaals
Date: Fri, Dec 16 2016 12:48PM
Subject: Re: icons and color contrast
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Agreed. As noted, hopefully some of this will get covered in an update to WCAG, but there's a clear and obvious problem, so it should be clear and obvious that it should be fixed.
WCAG doesn't cover every possible case, it's a set of requirements that fix problems known and sufficiently well described a decade ago when it was made. This is an oversight - probably at the time we missed it because there was a minimal contrast... ;)
cheers
16.12.2016, 18:18, "JP Jamous" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >:
> Amen to that one.
>
>
From: Joan Preston
Date: Fri, Dec 16 2016 4:32PM
Subject: Re: icons and color contrast
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Thank you all for your replies and helping me understand more about icons and color contrast.
Joan Preston
From: Joan Preston
Date: Fri, Dec 16 2016 4:36PM
Subject: Re: icons and color contrast
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Thank you all for replying to my post and helping me understand more about icons and color contrast.
Thanks,
Joan Preston