Re: eNewsletter Guidance?

On 08/03/2021 22:00, Pyatt, Elizabeth J wrote:
> I would say it's ambiguous. The WCAG 2.1 has guidelines for content 
> reflow when a user zooms in, but nothing specifically relating to 
> adapting to dark mode (yet).

It's not ambiguous if there is no direct WCAG SC that fails.

> However, I think the intention is that content work with user 
> preferences whenever possible. If you send out in unreadable email to a 
> client using dark mode, you are not providing an accessible experience - 

Not disputing this. Just clarifying, as Steve was, that this is likely 
not a FAIL of WCAG per se - since WCAG does have many things that fall 
between the gaps.

> because there may be a contrast error generated which IS a WCAG violation.

Contrast checks are done against what the author defined, not against 
what the end result of a user adaptation may be, though ... because 
authors cannot account for the quirks in which users may have set their 
particular environment, what non-standard changes a particular OS/user 
agent does when switching to some form of forced dark or high contrast 
mode, etc.

> I'm interpreting your comments that the burden of remediating a darkmode 
> glitch would fall on the user, but if the darkmode user is using it 
> reduce visual strain, then it could be considered an accessibility issue 
> to the user. The ideal is to NOT have the user remediate bad content.

Not saying anything about the burden, and yes an author should test and 
make sure their output is resilient. Again, we're making the distinction 
that this is NOT about WCAG compliance (which is silent about dark  mode 
etc at this point), and goes beyond the normative requirements of WCAG. 
Just want to be clear that if something fails to correctly adapt to dark 
mode, we can't just go around saying "so this fails WCAG".

> 
> For these reasons, I personally would recommend testing your email 
> messages on darkmode. As I said, I've seen many colleagues switching to 
> that mode.

And that's good advice of course. Just being clear that this goes beyond 
the pure requirements of WCAG.

P
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Patrick H. Lauke

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Received on Monday, 8 March 2021 22:06:49 UTC