Color Content Information Page
3.4 Color
About Color and Content
When designing a document or series of documents, content developers should strive first to identify the desired structure for their documents before thinking about how the documents will be presented to the user. Distinguishing the structure of a document from how the content is presented offers a number of advantages, including improved accessibility, manageability, and portability.
Identifying what is structure and what is presentation may be challenging at times. For instance, many content developers consider that a horizontal line communicates a structural division. This may be true for sighted users, but to unsighted users or users without graphical browsers, a horizontal line may have next to no meaning. For example, in HTML content developers should use the HTML 4.01 heading elements (H1-H6) to identify new sections. These may be complemented by visual or other cues such as horizontal rules, but should not be replaced by them.
For Additional Information See:
National Institutes of Health (Colored buttons should also display text; etc.)
(c) Web pages shall be designed so that all information conveyed with color is also available without color, for example from context or markup.
Why is this provision necessary?
When colors are used as the sole method for identifying screen elements or
controls, persons who are color blind as well as those people who are blind or
have low vision may find the web page unusable.
Does this mean that all pages have to be displayed in black and white?
No, this provision does not prohibit the use of color to enhance
identification of important features. It does, however, require that some other
method of identification, such as text labels, must be combined with the use of
color. This provision addresses not only the problem of using color to indicate
emphasized text, but also the use of color to indicate an action. For example, a
web page that directs a user to "press the green button to start" should also
identify the green button in some other fashion than simply by color.
Is there any way a page can be quickly checked to ensure compliance with this
provision?
There are two simple ways of testing a web page to determine if this
requirement is being met: by either viewing the page on a black and white
monitor, or by printing it out on a black and white printer. Both methods will
quickly show if the removal of color affects the usability of the page.
