Color vision deficiency, or color blindness, is a very common disease that affects about 8% of the population. For the MU home page that equals about 4,800 visitors a day. That’s a significant number of users, so it’s important that we add a color blind test to our regular set of accessibility checks.
Since Cynthia Says doesn’t check for color deficiency, this test is often overlooked. There’s no reason not to test since there are a few handy, free tools that make checking your site easy.
Color Oracle is an application that will simulate the different types of color blindness on your computer. I like this option because you can test your design at the Photoshop mock-up stage before you begin to code.
Another Web-based option is the Colorblind Web Page Filter. You submit your site URL and it will return a version as it appears to a color blind person. It’s a bit slow, but easy.
Here are a few more color blind resources:
Are Your Web Pages Color Sensitive?
This site has a few good tips on designing your site. One tip I’d add is making sure your embeded links are distinguishable from the rest of the text by using something other than a different color, like underlines.
As Seen By The Color Blind
A good article that explains color blindness and gives plenty of examples.
Colblindor
A comprehensive blog about colorblindness.
