The official WCAG 2.1 – 1.4.11 Non-text Contrast (Level AA) Guideline states:

“People with low vision often have difficulty perceiving graphics that have insufficient contrast. This can be exacerbated if the person has a color vision deficiency that lowers the contrast even further. Providing a relative luminance (lightness difference) of 3:1 or greater can make these items more distinguishable when the person does not see a full range of colors.”

WHAT IS LOW VISION?

Low vision is the term used to describe significant visual impairment that can’t be corrected fully with glasses, contact lenses, medication or eye surgery. [SOURCE]

EXAMPLE

More from the W3C:

“Low contrast controls are more difficult to perceive, and may be completely missed by people with a visual impairment. Similarly, if a graphic is needed to understand the content or functionality of the webpage then it should be perceivable by people with low vision or other impairments without the need for contrast-enhancing assistive technology.”

TRANSLATION: When you follow this color contrast guideline, it assists people with low vision so they can more easily recognize icons and graphical objects on a web page.

Here are some examples:

Three check mark icon graphics appear below. Each one uses a different green color on top of a white background.

The icon on the left (light green #6cbf7e) has a failing contrast ratio of 2.29:1.

The icon in the middle (darker green #469156) has a passing contrast ratio of 3.86:1.

The icon on the right (even darker green #487651) has a passing contrast ratio of 5.27:1.

BEST PRACTICE

If the icon helps the individual to perform an action on the web page, or to understand the content around it, then the graphic must meet the minimum color contrast requirement of 4.5.1 so that folks with low vision can use it.

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WEBSITE ACCESSIBILITY TESTING & REMEDIATION SERVICES: Mary Gillen is an experienced Website Accessibility Compliance Auditor and Remediator. She can test your website to determine if it meets accessibility standards:

WCAG 2.1: 312 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 59 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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The WCAG 2.1 – 2.5.5 Target Size (AAA) Guideline states that “the size of the target for pointer inputs is at least 44 by 44 CSS pixels.” There are exceptions, of course. But did you know that ignoring this guideline can have negative affects when Google indexes your mobile website?

WHAT GOOGLE WANTS

When Google checks the mobile usability of your website, it looks to see if “clickable elements are too close together.” If so, this means that your responsive website may be negatively affected in Google Search results.

From Google:

“A minimum recommended touch target size is around 48 device independent pixels on a site with a properly set mobile viewport. For example, while an icon may only have a width and height of 24px, you can use additional padding to bring the tap target size up to 48px. The 48×48 pixel area corresponds to around 9mm, which is about the size of a person’s finger pad area. Touch targets should also be spaced about 8 pixels apart, both horizontally and vertically, so that a user’s finger pressing on one tap target does not inadvertently touch another tap target.” [SOURCE]

THE PROBLEM MAY BE MORE THAN MOBILE BUTTONS

Here are some other items to check as well:

– Breadcrumbs that don’t display with enough line-height when the text wraps to the next line
– Footer links
– Social media icons that appear in a row

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WEBSITE ACCESSIBILITY TESTING & REMEDIATION SERVICES: Mary Gillen is an experienced Website Accessibility Compliance Auditor and Remediator. She can test your website to determine if it meets accessibility standards:

WCAG 2.1: 312 checkpoints covering A, AA and AAA W3 accessibility guidelines
Section 508: 15 US federal guidelines covered by 59 accessibility checkpoints

Find out more about Mary Gillen’s Accessibility Testing & Remediation Services: Websites, PDFs, Office Docs & Videos

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