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Thread: Color Contrast

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Number of posts in this thread: 6 (In chronological order)

From: David Ashleydale
Date: Fri, May 25 2012 5:59PM
Subject: Color Contrast
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Hi,

I was explaining to someone that in order to meet the WCAG Level AA color
contrast guideline for a particular color of text and its background, she
would have to use at least 18 point text on the web page (it didn't provide
enough contrast for regular size text, but did for large text). She said,
"Well, can't the user just zoom in or increase the text size using the
browser functionality to get it up to 18 points or more?"

I didn't know how to respond.

Help? :)

Thanks,
David Ashleydale

From: Lists@Srinivasu.org
Date: Fri, May 25 2012 7:57PM
Subject: Re: Color Contrast
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David,
You may want to tell her that there would be users such as learning disabilities or elderly users who may not even aware that browser has such a functionality.

Makes sense?

Regards,
Srinivasu
Sent from my iPhone
----------------------------------------
http://Srinivasu.org
Twitter: @vasutweets



On 26-May-2012, at 5:29 AM, David Ashleydale < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I was explaining to someone that in order to meet the WCAG Level AA color
> contrast guideline for a particular color of text and its background, she
> would have to use at least 18 point text on the web page (it didn't provide
> enough contrast for regular size text, but did for large text). She said,
> "Well, can't the user just zoom in or increase the text size using the
> browser functionality to get it up to 18 points or more?"
>
> I didn't know how to respond.
>
> Help? :)
>
> Thanks,
> David Ashleydale
> > >

From: J. B-Vincent
Date: Sat, May 26 2012 2:49AM
Subject: Re: Color Contrast
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Some users would need the enhanced contrast but would find the larger text size cumbersome or problematic.

--- On Fri, 5/25/12, David Ashleydale < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:

From: David Ashleydale < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Subject: [WebAIM] Color Contrast
To: "WebAIM Discussion List" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Date: Friday, May 25, 2012, 4:59 PM

Hi,

I was explaining to someone that in order to meet the WCAG Level AA color
contrast guideline for a particular color of text and its background, she
would have to use at least 18 point text on the web page (it didn't provide
enough contrast for regular size text, but did for large text). She said,
"Well, can't the user just zoom in or increase the text size using the
browser functionality to get it up to 18 points or more?"

I didn't know how to respond.

Help? :)

Thanks,
David Ashleydale

From: Monique Brunel
Date: Sat, May 26 2012 4:49AM
Subject: Re: Color Contrast
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Le 26/05/2012 01:59, David Ashleydale a écrit :
> Hi,
>
> I was explaining to someone that in order to meet the WCAG Level AA color
> contrast guideline for a particular color of text and its background, she
> would have to use at least 18 point text on the web page (it didn't provide
> enough contrast for regular size text, but did for large text). She said,
> "Well, can't the user just zoom in or increase the text size using the
> browser functionality to get it up to 18 points or more?"
>
> I didn't know how to respond.
>
> Help? :)
>
> Thanks,
> David Ashleydale

Hi,

I think this is not for the user to find how to solve a problem of contrast.
Most of them do not know that increasing the size of text can solve such
a problem, and will not think to do that!

Best regards,
Monique

--
Accessibilité et qualité des sites Web
Monique Brunel - Conférences - Ateliers - Conseil
| http://blog.webatou.info | Tél. +32(0)473 25 81 94
| www.opquast.com | www.openweb.eu.org | www.mozilla-belgium.org |

From: Jared Smith
Date: Sat, May 26 2012 8:46AM
Subject: Re: Color Contrast
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On Fri, May 25, 2012 at 5:59 PM, David Ashleydale wrote:
> She said,
> "Well, can't the user just zoom in or increase the text size using the
> browser functionality to get it up to 18 points or more?"

By that same logic, the user could just override page colors to fix
the contrast issue, or get a friend to read it for them. If we took
this approach to accessibility we wouldn't need to bother at all.

Jared

From: David Ashleydale
Date: Sat, May 26 2012 9:42AM
Subject: Re: Color Contrast
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Thanks all, these are useful responses.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that this colleague was questioning all
accessibility work, though -- she was just thinking that with 1 or 2 clicks
this problem could be solved by the user easily.

But hey, not everyone wants large fonts. If they did, we would make it big
for everyone. Great reasoning, I'll use that. Thanks!

David Ashleydale

On Saturday, May 26, 2012, Jared Smith wrote:

> On Fri, May 25, 2012 at 5:59 PM, David Ashleydale wrote:
> > She said,
> > "Well, can't the user just zoom in or increase the text size using the
> > browser functionality to get it up to 18 points or more?"
>
> By that same logic, the user could just override page colors to fix
> the contrast issue, or get a friend to read it for them. If we took
> this approach to accessibility we wouldn't need to bother at all.
>
> Jared
> > > >