Accessibility & Color: Addressing Color Blindness in the User Experience
It’s estimated that 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some form of color blindness, or color vision deficiency as it is more accurately known. While not considered a serious medical condition or a disability, color blindness can make aspects of everyday life difficult.
One area of frustration for people who are colorblind is the use of color to impart information. Whether used in charts and graphs to communicate numerical data or in calls to action and hyperlinks to indicate possible paths, color can make any experience difficult for colorblind users.
In this seminar, Dave explores the science of color vision and discuss how color matters to both usability and accessibility. He introduces a practical approach to designing with color that keeps users with color vision deficiencies in mind.
Tools :: Color Contrast
Color Contrast Analyser from Paciello Group
Colour Contrast Check by Jonathan Snook
Contrast Grid from Eightshapes
Color Safe by Donielle Berg & Adrian Rapp
Tools :: Color Palettes
Color-blind Safe Color Swatches by Brian Suda
Color Universal Design (CUD) by Ito & Okabe
Color Brewer 2.0 by Dr. Cynthia Brewer
Tools :: Simulators
Color Oracle by Bernie Jenny (Mac OSX, Windows, Linux)
Photoshop & Illustrator from Adobe (protanopia & deuteranopia) - select from menu: View —> Proof Setup
Vischeck from Stanford University
Daltonize from Stanford University (corrects images)
WCAG 2.0 Resources
Contrast (Minium): Understanding SC 1.4.3
Great References
Color Accessibility Workflows by Geri Coady
from A Book Apart
Colour Blind Awareness, a UK-based organization
Colour Blind Awareness on Twitter, great for seeing how color blindness affects folks everyday