Color and Color Contrast

Who can benefit?

• People with color blindness: Color blindness is a common disability, affecting 8% of men and 1 in 200 women. People with color blindness may have difficulty distinguishing between certain colors.
• People with low vision: People with low vision may have limited or no color perception. They may also need to magnify a screen or invert the colors to read.
• People who are losing visual acuity with age: Older people often have low contrast sensitivity.
• Everyone: High contrast makes content easier to read for everyone, even those without specific visual conditions.

Color

• Check that color is not the only visual means of distinguishing a visual element.
• Any information conveyed by color should also be paired with text or another type of visual indicator.
• If you use colored text for emphasis, bold or italicize it too e.g., Emphasize This!
• Pairing color with another indicator aims to ensure that sighted individuals who cannot distinguish between some colors can still understand the content.

Contrast

• Check that text, visual elements, and interactive elements have strong contrast against the page background.
• Providing enough contrast between the foreground and background enables readability for sighted individuals.
• Black on a white background is typically the best option because it has high contrast.

Resources to check your contrast

Download this easy to use color contrast checker Links to an external site. and begin checking your colors immediate!

Use Deque's Color Contrast Analyzer Links to an external site. to check your color choices.