Color and Website Design – Accessibility
For a web design, the main challenge of building a website is to make it accessible to all. Some constituents of the target population may suffer from disabilities that restrict them from enjoying the full capabilities of the website being viewed. The following text explains how it is possible for the website service provider to create websites that reach a larger slice of the population.
Use of color is an integral part of the website design professional and of the professional logo designer. Color can be the reason of many accessibility problems when it comes to individuals with vision disabilities. Approximately ten percent of the total human population suffers from a variation of color deficiency. Thus, if your company website deals in men’s products, it will be wise for you to create a website that takes into account that approximately ten percent of the male population is blind. The website should be such that color deficient people must also enjoy the digital product.
Research has revealed that the red-green color deficiency is the one color deficiency that is present in the population. Persons afflicted with this problem cannot differentiate between red and green colors. Blue-yellow deficiency is the second most prevalent vision problem among humans in the world. It is clear that color combinations like these-that cause problems should be avoided for the sake of users who are color deficient. The most severe form of this type of disability is achromatopsia. It the inability to see any color. Achromatopsia correlates to other ocular problems like lazy eye or amblyopia, photosensitivity, nystagmus and very poor vision.
The web designing process also takes into account the problem of contrasting colors. Some users may have difficulties in viewing and analyzing certain color combinations. It cannot be safely assumed that colors are perceived uniformly across all users. Light and dark colors are perceived differently by different individuals. It is recommended by web designing professionals that light colors should be further lightened and dark colors should be further darkened to increase the visual accessibility of your company’s website. To proceed, the web pages should first be tested with a monochrome monitor setting. If the page elements can be clearly differentiated, chances are that a user who is color deficient will probably able to view the website in an effective manner.
We understand that colors can convey meaning. It is not advisable to use color to label web page areas that have content. They should not be used to give direction to the user. It is recommended that you use text to help users who suffer from deficiency in color. Even if there are no visually impaired persons are present, there is no need to put cluster sensitive colors adjacent to each other. They should not be used as navigational tools. Textual options should be clearly provided. Monochrome monitors are still used in some places. The Vischeck color blindness simulator permits you to view a copy of the web page as it would appear to someone who has red-green color deficiency.
