Thanks to the power of internet criticism, the code discussed in this blog post has since been fixed! Sometimes just making a complaint is all it takes to get something fixed. I was highly critical of the code authors for this low-quality code; but they truly did care, and made changes. Thank you. Authoring forms is an important part of keeping the web fully accessible — not just providing access to information, but allowing users to fully interact with the […]
Continue reading “When the right hand doesn’t listen to the left.” »Category: Web standards
Minimum Color Contrast Ratio Changed in WCAG 2
In the final release of WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 2, the acceptable minimum color contrast ratio was changed from 5:1 to 4.5:1. I’ve updated both my color contrast tests — Color Contrast Comparison Tool and the Color Contrast Spectrum Tool to reflect the change in contrast ratio. What does this change mean? Essentially, this means that the working group decided that color combinations with lower contrast (more similar colors) were acceptable for general use on the web. This is […]
Continue reading “Minimum Color Contrast Ratio Changed in WCAG 2” »WCAG 2 Reaches Recommendation Status
It’s been a long time coming, but as of today the standards of accessibility expressed in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are officially updated. A W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) recommendation is the most final state a document can reach in the W3C standards system, and should now be considered the standard document for accessibility, superceding WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 1. A W3C Recommendation is a specification or set of guidelines that, after extensive consensus-building, has received the endorsement […]
Continue reading “WCAG 2 Reaches Recommendation Status” »Web site Tune-up: 8 Quick Checkups
Perfecting a web site is a long and involved process. There’s no getting around the fact that if you want every aspect of your site to be right — accessibility, search optimization, and just all-around pizzazz, you’ve probably got some significant work to do. However, that’s not to say that there aren’t things you can check quickly and efficiently to make sure you’re not making some of the more egregious errors! Here are 8 speedy checkups (in no particular order) […]
Continue reading “Web site Tune-up: 8 Quick Checkups” »Testing Color Contrast for WCAG 1 & 2
Use the Color Contrast Spectrum Tester or compare the contrast of two colors. Some time ago, while pondering whether web accessibility posed limitations on design, the thought occurred to me that there are presumably some colors which simply cannot be used for text or text backgrounds in any site. WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) 1 does not, in fact, provide any specific guidelines concerning color contrast. The formulas commonly used to judge this were specified in Techniques For Accessibility Evaluation […]
Continue reading “Testing Color Contrast for WCAG 1 & 2” »