Accessibility in Visual Design

4.10.1Definition

Accessible visual design ensures that typography, color, spacing, and imagery choices remain usable for people with low vision, color vision deficiencies, or cognitive differences — a constraint applied across every other chapter in this Part, gathered here as one consolidated reference.

4.10.2Core Requirements

• Contrast — text meets WCAG AA minimums (4.5:1 normal text, 3:1 large text) against its actual background, not just against a swatch in isolation.
• Color independence — no information conveyed by color alone (4.2); always paired with text, icon, or pattern.
• Text sizing — layouts that don't break when a user increases browser text size, a common low-vision accommodation.
• Motion sensitivity — respecting reduced-motion preferences for any significant animation (3.35, 4.8).

4.10.3Common Mistakes

• Treating accessibility as a post-launch audit item rather than a constraint considered during the original typography, color, and layout decisions in this Part.
• Testing contrast only against a plain background swatch, missing failures that occur against photography or gradients in the actual shipped product.

4.10.4Best Practices

• Check contrast at design time using the actual colors and backgrounds specified in Chapters 4.1–4.2, not idealized swatches.
• Build and test layouts at increased text-zoom levels as a standard part of the design review process.