Testing your website for colour blindness
Posted 30 May 2007 at 8:28AM by Simon Dickson in Website development
Since 1999, there has been a legal requirement for all websites to make 'reasonable adjustments' to ensure it can be used by all, regardless of ability or disability. Web professionals have had long enough to learn what constitutes good practice in accessibility terms, beyond the rather vague principles of the famous WAI Guidelines; there's also the happy side-effect that accessible sites are often easier for search engines to work with.
But one disability which is often overlooked is colour blindness. NHS Direct reckons as many as 8% of men (but just 1% of women) have some form of colour vision deficiency: that's over 5 million people in the UK alone. So if you're designing or building a website, it's worth testing your concepts using one of several simulation tools available on the internet.
ColorDoctor by Fujitsu is an excellent little Windows program which simulates the three types of colour-blindness, using a built-in web browser, or by uploading an image file of your choice. Fujitsu also has a program called ColorSelector which helps designers choose accessible combinations of colours, but it has problems with the latest version of Java. Both are offered free of charge.
Mac users may want to try Sim Daltonism or Color Oracle, which offer similar simulations. The latter is also available (in beta format) for Windows and Linux.
If you want to read up on accessibility, you won't do better than the RNIB's website. Their Web Access Centre Blog was launched almost a year ago, and is a useful resource for the latest developments and opinions. The Web Access Centre itself has all the information you'll be needing, including a range of plain-language guidance notes and case studies.
Tags: accessibility, colourblind, fujitsu, rnib, web design
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