Accessibility Color Wheel and Visicheck


Web designers today must take care to design sites that are accessible to all users of the internet. The W3C stipulates, “Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the Web. More specifically, Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web. Web accessibility also benefits others, including older people with changing abilities due to aging.” This means that people reading web pages with screen readers must be able to navigate our web pages, whether they are personal sites or business sites. The web is becoming more important for people from many different walks of life. E-commerce is booming. Secure online banking is the norm these days.

 

Our pages must accomodate everyone. What a tall order.

Luckily, there are tools on the web to help the discriminating designer create web pages that are both aesthetically pleasing and accessible. The Accessibility Color Wheel is one important tool. We get instant results. Simply choose a foreground color, a background color, and watch as the text on the right changes. Results for those with normal vision is at the top. Results for three different types of color blindness are at the bottom:

  • Deuteronopia: an insensitivity to green
  • Protanopia: an insensitivity to red
  • Tritanopia: an insensitivity to blue (very rare)

Coming up with a design and want to test colors before uploading? This is an important tool for you.

Another important tool is Vischeck. Already have a working site? Visit Vischeck. Click the first link in the middle of the page to see your site as someone with colorblindnes sees it. Beyond the Accessibility Color Wheel, Vischeck takes an entire web page and transforms it. Having difficulty reading your site as it appears to those with Deuteronopia or Protanopia? Then it’s time to redesign.

Aside from just doing the right thing, accessibility makes good business sense. The average user makes a split second decision to stay and explore your site, or move on. Build sites that draw visitors and entice them to stay a while.

My personal committment is to make sure that every site I build is enticing and accessible. If the name eNew Park Forest is at the bottom of the page, then the site must shine. And accessibility is one important brick in the wall.

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