A number of questions were raised following Does W3C Get Its Contrasts Wrong?. The following was orginally posted as a comment follow-up, but, since it’s rather long, I’ve re-posted it here.
Does the problem of too high a contrast prove to be a barrier to all people with dyslexia?
As long as you are clear what you mean by ‘dyslexia’, yes - as far as I am aware. The difficulty arises because the term ‘dyslexia’ is often used simultaneously to mean a specific reading difficulty and a group of learning difficulties of which reading is one.
More On Dyslexia: continue reading …
Following my comments in Does W3C Get Its Contrasts Wrong?, I decided to develop an alternative colour contrast analyser that took into account some of the points I’d raised.
As well as using the W3C thresholds, it uses the Hewlett Packard Color Difference threshold which, at 400, is 20% lower than the corresponding W3C figure. It also provides a ‘high contrast warning’ if the colour difference exceeds 600. This latter figure is really just a guess on my part, so I’d be interested in any concrete evidence that might help provide a better threshold for dyslexics.
An Alternative Colour Contrast Analyser: continue reading …
I was particularly interested in the BBC’s recent article on LAMA (Location Aware Messaging for Accessibility). As someone whose hearing regularly goes from semi-reasonable to profoundly deaf, anything that allows me to see/hear public announcements in train stations would be a godsend. Any sound in an echoing environment is a problem and hearing aids, which tend to make sounds ‘tinny’ at the best of times, just make it worse. I have, literally, missed trains before now because the relevant PA announcement has been turned into a meaningless gabble by my hearing aid.
Deaf To See Announcements: continue reading …
There seems to be something of a minor argument raging recently over where ‘web accessibility’ ends and ‘universality’ begins.
Mike Cherim and Gez Lemon have illustrated both sides of the argument beautifully in The Great Accessibility Camp-Out whilst Accessibility In Trouble 2: Standards argues that, whatever personal view developers hold, they should at least agree to abide by the W3C / WAI definition of ‘accessibility’.
Watching this from the sidelines, it occurred to me that the root problem was semantic in nature and revolves around what is exactly meant by the term ‘web accessibility’. So I started off trying to:
- Find an absolute definition for the term
- See if I could spot where the breakdown in communication was occurring
- Consider what could be done to resove the problem
Definitions of Web Accessibility: continue reading …
