RE: Using User Settings/Windows high contrast mode (was Re: LVTF agenda items)

> Great list. Windows high contrast mode is a problem, alright. How to write an SC for it in a technology agonist way is the hard part.

IE and FF turn off background images and change other things like borders to specific colors.  I agree with these changes -- background images are just that -- background and not content image so it makes sense for them to turn them off.  Chrome requires an extension for high contrast.

Edge I believe keeps in the background images but puts some sort of mask behind the text to make it more readable.  This seems like a compromise.  But leaving in background images may not be good for some users.  Really we need a way to distinguish between content images and backgrounds.  This requires developer properly using the content property in CSS to specify images rather than background-image.

> Something to be aware of is that WCAG has historically had F3: Failure of Success Criterion 1.1.1 due to using CSS to include images that convey important information [1]. 

Yes, this is great.

> However, F3 is under discussion to remove the HCM requirement [1]  so it would NOT be a failure. 

This is concerning.  As long as background images can't be relied upon I guess it doesn't matter -- but I don't want to lose F3.  High contrast is irrelevant to it -- but just a convenient way to test for it.

> Check the pull request [2]. A yet to be written technique for HCM has been proposed but not written.

Jonathan Avila
Chief Accessibility Officer
SSB BART Group 
jon.avila@ssbbartgroup.com
703.637.8957 (Office)

Visit us online: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Linkedin | Blog
Check out our Digital Accessibility Webinars!


-----Original Message-----
From: Laura Carlson [mailto:laura.lee.carlson@gmail.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, October 19, 2016 9:33 AM
To: Erich Manser
Cc: Andrew Kirkpatrick; public-low-vision-a11y-tf
Subject: Using User Settings/Windows high contrast mode (was Re: LVTF agenda items)

Hi Erich,

On 10/19/16, Erich Manser <emanser@us.ibm.com> wrote:
> Wondering if Using User Settings should stipulate that web content be 
> readable/visible in Windows high contrast mode (or ZoomText/MAGic) - 
> or is this too technology specific?
> Issues such as:
>    background images that get turned off in high contrast mode can cause
>    problems with text being visible or having enough contrast.
>    iconography that doesn't show up well in high contrast mode because it
>    might either be too small or may also have poor contrast against the
>    background when transparency is used.
>    Copy/paste features when high contrast mode is on (either copy paste is
>    copying and pasting the high contrast color schemes and you don't want
>    them to because the user you're sending the information to isn't using
>    that mode, or when copying/pasting between applications and some
>    applications paste in high contrast mode and some don't.
>    Outlines of custom entry fields that disappear because a background
>    image was used to provide the box.
>    Checkbox and radio button states that don't appear to be visually
>    apparent because of customization that doesn't work well in HCM, isn't
>    in the HCM color scheme the user had chosen

Great list. Windows high contrast mode is a problem, alright. How to write an SC for it in a technology agonist way is the hard part.

Something to be aware of is that WCAG has historically had F3: Failure of Success Criterion 1.1.1 due to using CSS to include images that convey important information [1]. However, F3 is under discussion to remove the HCM requirement [1]  so it would NOT be a failure. Check the pull request [2]. A yet to be written technique for HCM has been proposed but not written.

Kindest Regards,
Laura

[1] https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20-TECHS/F3.html

[2] https://github.com/w3c/wcag/issues/80

[3] https://github.com/w3c/wcag/pull/120/files?diff=split


--
Laura L. Carlson

Received on Monday, 24 October 2016 02:30:03 UTC