[Foundation-l] Colourblindness

Sat Jun 25 22:11:08 UTC 2005

Hi,

     I very rarely post to the wikimedia mailing lists, but this message caught my attention. It mentions something that I feel is very important. Robin Shannon <robin.shannon at gmail.com>
refers to the problem of distinguishing different types of links, which might be hard for the color blind. She says:

"Sure this isnt really important..."

I don't agree with this remark in any way. I think that the "accessibility" of our site is quite important. By Section 508 of our accessibility laws, the U.S. government is not allowed to use non-accessible computer software, applications, etc. Further, I believe it is morally right that our site be accessible.
     If anything, I think it is time to review our site for accessibility. What could Jimbo mean by his oft-quoted statement:

Wikipedia is described by its founder Jimmy Wales as "an effort to create and distribute a free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language."[3] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia#endnote_WalesGoal) 

if our site is not available to the millions of disabled in the U.S., not to mention the world.
The W3 has complete guidelines on accessibility for web site designers to implement:

http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/

                     As Ever,

                          Ruth Ifcher
--

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Robin Shannon <robin.shannon at gmail.com>
> G'day all,
> 
> Currently the colour of the normal link and the visited link are
> indistinguishable to the colourblind. This is a problem across all the
> sites we have. Sure this isnt really important, but are then any web
> designers who have faced this problem before who could suggest colours
> which could be distinguished by most colourblind ppl (since most
> colourblind ppl arent completely colourblind, just red-green
> colourblind). Apparently about 10 percent of ppl are colourblind
> 
> paz y amor,
> -rjs.
> 
> -- 
> hit me: <robin.shannon.id.au>
> jab me: <robin.shannon at jabber.org.au>
> 
> upgrade to ubuntu linux: <http://www.spreadubuntu.org/>
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