Variety of color

When color customization is supported, provide a variety of color selections capable of producing a range of contrast levels.

For many people, color is a matter of preference, but it is critical for many users with visual impairments. Users with visual impairments require a high contrast between text and the background to be able to read. They may even need a particular scheme, such as white text on a black background, to prevent the background from "bleeding" over and obscuring the foreground text. They may need to change the color scheme due to color blindness.

Because different users need different colors and different high contrast settings, it is not sufficient to support only one set of colors or only one high contrast setting.

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The following techniques are the minimum required to meet Checkpoint 4.3 from the IBM Java Accessibility Checklist:

• Provide at least three color choices that provide high contrast. White on black, black on white, and yellow on black are examples of high contrast settings.
• Provide the ability for the user to customize color selections for background and foreground. Provide choices with a range of high contrast colors using class JColorChooser.AccessibleJColorChooser (link resides outside of ibm.com)to ensure the color chooser is accessible.

The techniques above are required; the following techniques are recommended to enhance accessibility.

• Avoid using reds and greens together.
• Lighthouse International provides guidelines for effective color contrast on their Web site at www.lighthouse.org/color_contrast.htm. (link resides outside of ibm.com)

Test the software to ensure that it complies with accessibility requirements.

• Tools for testing this checkpoint
• Windows techniques for testing this checkpoint

Tools

There are no test tools required to test this checkpoint.

Windows techniques

The following technique is required to verify this checkpoint: