Design and Accessibility: Part X

In the previous design and accessibility article, Linda shared how a viewer’s user agent processes forms, and why some processors are better than others from accessibility and usability standpoints. In this article, she moves from behind the Web page to the front, where the colour-blind user might face some problems with Web images. What are these problems, and how can Web designers and/or developers address these issues in their work? Linda first explains colour-blindness and then focuses on red-green colour-blindness in this article – the most common form of inherited colour-blindness. She explains why more men exhibit colour-blindness than women, and she offers examples of how normal viewers and red-green colourblind viewers see the flickr Website. Finally, Linda brings some solutions to the table for Web designers who might want to address this issue.

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Overview

Is Colour-Blindness an Issue in Web Design?

I often believed that my last husband was colour-blind, because his choice in clothing combinations often jarred my senses. However, he also combined textures and patterns in his attire, so I then understood that his choices were more along the line of eccentric taste rather than the result of a colour-blindness defect. And, I couldn’t make that colour-blind assumption in the first place, because I didn’t know how colour-blind people reacted to their environments at that time anyway.

Although I know more today about colour-blindness than I did then, I continue to be amazed by how colour-blind people perceive their worlds. Richard offers one perspective as a colour-blind Web user and as a Web author. Richard states that he isn’t bothered at all by most Website colours, and he feels that colour-blindness really isn’t an issue for Web designers and developers.

Linda Goin

Linda GoinLinda Goin carries an A.A. in graphic design, a B.F.A. in visual communications with a minor in business and marketing and an M.A. in American History with a minor in the Reformation. While the latter degree doesn't seem to fit with the first two educational experiences, Linda used her 25-year design expertise on archaeological digs and in the study of material culture. Now she uses her education and experiences in social media experiments.

Accolades for her work include fifteen first-place Colorado Press Association awards, numerous fine art and graphic design awards, and interviews about content development with The Wall St. Journal, Chicago Tribune, Psychology Today, and L.A. Times.

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