[WEB4LIB] Re: Web page color & accessibility

[Nancy Sosna Bohm]

From: "Patricia F Anderson" <pfa at umich.edu>
> <http://hubel.sfasu.edu/research/AHNCUR.html>
> "When light text is placed on a dark background ...."

I just looked at this study by Ann Hill and observed an interesting
meta-study phenomenom (so to speak):

Table 1 indicates that Italicized Times in Green on Yellow has a very short
reaction time. Surely this must be owing to some outside factor (e.g., the
green on yellow was shown to the participants last and contained the same
text); even non-italicized Times in green on yellow is difficult to read, as
can be observed on Hill's webpage (and which I will therefore not be reading
in its entirety).



----- Original Message -----
From: "Patricia F Anderson" <pfa at umich.edu>
To: "Multiple recipients of list" <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 5:54 PM
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Re: Web page color & accessibility


> On Tue, 3 Dec 2002, John Creech wrote:
>
> > Thank you for your response, Lee.  I've encountered the printing
problems,
> > too, and likely will not implement this, but was curious if there was
> > empirical evidence to argue against the practice.  The consensus here
> > seems to be that yes, dark backgrounds w/ light text create unnecessary
> > problems for visually impaired users.
> >
> > John Creech, CWU Library
>
> Opinions from instructors in web design.
>
> <http://www.leafdigital.com/class/lessons/graphicdesign2/3.html>
> "If you must use a dark background ... "
>
> <http://www.santarosa.edu/access/checklist/example3.html>
> Accessible Web Design Checklist
>
> <http://ibis.nott.ac.uk/guidelines/ch2/chap2-G-4.html>
> "Dark text on a light background with good contrast is more readable than
> light text on a dark background, or than any combination of fore- and
> background with low contrast."
>
> <http://www.plainwords.co.uk/web_readability.pdf>
> "If you use light text on a dark background, you need a slightly heavier
> typeface to help readability, but remember that this can make the pages
> harder to print."
>
> <http://www.great-web-design-tips.com/web-usability/91.html>
> "If you're offering professional services you shouldn't really use a light
> colored text on a dark background."
>
> <http://www.colormatters.com/bubdarc3-vision.html>
> "The issue is one of contrast, dark type on a light background, or light
> type on a dark background. Here are two urls with lots of information
> about typography and readability on screen compared to traditional print
> media. <http://www.wpdfd.com/editorial/wpd0698.htm#comment>
> and <http://www.wpdfd.com/wpdtypo.htm>"
>
> COMMENT: This one is really interesting, since it uses a white non-serif
> font on a navy background. Very hard for *me* to read. :-)
>
> .. and someone wanted research?
>
> <http://hubel.sfasu.edu/research/AHNCUR.html>
> "When light text is placed on a dark background the text may seem to glow
> and become blurred; this is referred to as halation, and it may make the
> text harder to read."
>
> Enjoy!
>
> Patricia Anderson, pfa at umich.edu
>
>