On a web page, no information or instruction must be dependent on color alone. If color is used as the only way of conveying information, indication an action or prompting a response, it will be difficult for persons with color blindness and low vision get that information.
For example, a mandatory field on the form might be red in color. IF it has a star mark to indicate it as a mandatory field or if the input field is included with HTML5 required attribute a blind user too can understand that the field is mandatory. A link within a paragraph, if has color to differentiate with the surrounding text a low vision or color blind user may face difficulty. If the same link is also substituted with an underline it becomes part of the solution..
Validation for Use of color
- Open the page on the browser.
- Navigate through the page and check if any content has information conveyed through color.
- If such content/ instruction exist, verify if there is any alternate method either programatically provided or available in text.
- If such content exist but no alternate is provided it is an accessibility violation. If an alternate mechanism is provided it is passed.
WCAG Success Criteria
- 1.4.1 Use of color (Level A)