What is it?

Color is an important element that grabs attention, conveys meaning, and helps keep us engaged.  However, color perception is highly individual and can vary dramatically between people—even those without color vision differences. Color is slippery: we cannot rely on color alone to communicate important information, since our audiences may literally see different things when looking at the same visual. 

Impact

Color blindness affects 1 in 12 males (8%) and 1 in 200 (0.5%) females. That's roughly 300 - 350 million individuals (approximately 12 million in US). Moreover, many students do not disclose their color blindness and some are not even aware of it. Additionally, over 7 million people in the U.S. have vision loss (defined as 20/80) or blindness, of which 1.6 million below the age of 40.  Low vision can also impact how easily colors can be seen. That’s why color contrast is an important accessibility consideration.

Dos and Don'ts

• Don’t use color alone to convey meaning.
• Do use text in addition to color.
• Do use texture in addition to color.
• Do use icons in addition to color.
• Do use dark text on light background.​
• Do use a contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for a size 12 (or smaller) font.​
• Do use a contrast ratio of 3:1 for large text (size 18 font or size 14 bold).
• Do avoid vibrating contras.

How-To

• CAT Resource: Sufficient Color Contrast
• WebAIM Contrast Checker

Need More Help?

You can always book a one-on-one consultation, visit one of our ed tech labs, or email cat@temple.edu for additional assistance!