Color Me Included

When you’re building a brand or crafting content, color might seem like an aesthetic choice – something to evoke emotion or stand out. But for millions of people, color is more than a design element, it’s a potential barrier. That’s where accessibility and the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) come in!

From Colour Blindness Awareness, approximately 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women experience some form of color blindness and an estimated 300 million people with color blindness worldwide. Many more people experience low vision or other visual impairments that affect how they perceive color contrast. If your color palette doesn’t meet accessibility standards, vital information can be missed, navigation can become confusing and your audience can feel excluded.

WCAG offers specific guidelines around color contrast to ensure that text and visual elements are distinguishable for people with a wide range of vision abilities. For example, WCAG 2.1 requires a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for normal text and 3:1 for large text to be considered compliant at the AA level (which is the standard most organizations aim to meet).

That means that your favorite pastel purple background with light gray text might be visually appealing, but it could also be unreadable to a large portion of your audience.

Designing with accessibility in mind doesn’t mean compromising your brand’s personality or creativity. In fact, it often makes your visuals stronger, more intentional and inclusive. It ensures that your message comes through loud and clear for everyone. And, there are tools that make it really easy to get this right!