[CATO] Red Text on ctcLink Homepage

Thu May 11 14:40:16 PDT 2023

Hi Amy,

I'm sorry the tone of the email reply you received from SBCTC hit you the wrong way.

I am not an expert in color blindness by any means, though if someone is color-blind to red, the words of the text itself I believe would likely still be perceivable...just not perceived in the color red. In other words, I don't think someone with color-blindness would see no text on the screen.

With that said, I can reach out to Support Rep and ask for a section heading to be added to the alert and see if the team would consider using another color instead of red. Would you privately message me with information about who you spoke with?

[Title: SBCTC logo - Description: Compass]

Monica M. Olsson (she/her/hers)

Policy Associate – Accessible IT Coordinator

Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges

•Email: molsson at sbctc.edu<mailto:molsson at sbctc.edu> • Phone: 360-704-3922

The power of the Web is in its universality.
Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.

Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web

[cid:f200ccad-4966-4e31-bbf1-30756954d570]<https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/321a279c65664c04a18fa34a96e959ab@sbctc.edu?anonymous&ep=signature>                Book time to meet with me<https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/321a279c65664c04a18fa34a96e959ab@sbctc.edu?anonymous&ep=signature>
________________________________
From: Rovner, Amy <arovner at shoreline.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2023 10:37 AM
To: Monica Olsson <molsson at sbctc.edu>; Monica Olsson via CATO <cato at lists.ctc.edu>
Subject: Re: Red Text on ctcLink Homepage

[Sent from outside SBCTC]

Thank you Monica! Agreed.

I think a heading to the message would be a valuable addition.

While a screen reader can read it (which is great) will it/is it difficult for red colorblind folks to read? If they can't see red, then it does sort of meet that threshold of "solely relying on the color red alone to convey its meaning," because there isn't another way to access that content. But also agree that this is more of a "good practice" than a WCAG violation.

And I bet if they polled users, any colored text other than the black text will gain folks' attention. Otherwise, we log into ctcLink and skip right to business vs reading the same old, same old text that's there.

I guess I also took issue with the tone of the message.

What do others think?

Thank you and sorry that I missed the meeting again this week. I keep waiting for the day when I can step out of ctcLink stuff. Sigh...

Amy

Amy Rovner, MPH RD
Director eLearning Services
ctcLink Training Lead

Shoreline Community College
www.shoreline.edu  |  206.546.6937
eLearning Office: 206.546.6966
eLearning Email: elearning at shoreline.edu
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[Shoreline Community College]<https://shoreline.edu/>

________________________________
From: Monica Olsson <molsson at sbctc.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2023 12:42 PM
To: Monica Olsson via CATO <cato at lists.ctc.edu>
Cc: Rovner, Amy <arovner at shoreline.edu>
Subject: Re: Red Text on ctcLink Homepage

[ CAUTION: This email originated from outside Shoreline Community College. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. ]

Hi Amy,

I don't know if others have responded to you or not. My thoughts are below...

While I think it is worth considering if the use of red text is good practice or not, I don't think a technical WCAG violation has occurred. I'll explain my thoughts below, and hope that other CATO folks can weigh in too.

The red text is real text on an HTML web page with a bulleted list accompanying. So, the words of the text will convey the alert's meaning when a user hears the text read aloud by a screen reader. The message is not solely relying on the color red alone to convey its meaning, like say, a red graphic of an "X" with no associated text or label alongside a green graphic "check mark" also with no associated text or label.

The red text against the white background also does appear to meet minimum contrast requirements.

So, while I don't think a technical WCAG violation has occurred, I do think it's worth asking if this meets accessibility best practices, in my humble opinion.

Perhaps there needs to be a section heading at the top of the announcement that says something like, "ctcLink Alert Message" which I could request.

Hoping that others chime in.
~Monica

[Title: SBCTC logo - Description: Compass]

Monica M. Olsson (she/her/hers)

Policy Associate – Accessible IT Coordinator

Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges

•Email: molsson at sbctc.edu<mailto:molsson at sbctc.edu> • Phone: 360-704-3922

The power of the Web is in its universality.
Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.

Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web

[cid:3041f087-2409-42fb-811a-db46d510f29b]<https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/321a279c65664c04a18fa34a96e959ab@sbctc.edu?anonymous&ep=signature>                Book time to meet with me<https://outlook.office.com/bookwithme/user/321a279c65664c04a18fa34a96e959ab@sbctc.edu?anonymous&ep=signature>
________________________________
From: CATO <cato-bounces at lists.ctc.edu> on behalf of Rovner, Amy via CATO <cato at lists.ctc.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, May 2, 2023 3:39 PM
To: Monica Olsson via CATO <cato at lists.ctc.edu>
Cc: Rovner, Amy <arovner at shoreline.edu>
Subject: [CATO] Red Text on ctcLink Homepage

[Sent from outside SBCTC]

Hi All,

Per my request, one of our Business Analysts submitted a tix to Solar Winds re: the use of red text when they want to “alert” us to information that’s important on the ctcLink Gateway page.

[cid:image001.png at 01D97D0C.48491950]

I was not happy with the response we received and am frustrated on a variety of levels. I thought perhaps CATO should chime in on this to help me with my reply. BUT also, perhaps we need to do some training/share info on reasons to make things accessible/usable with the ctcLink PS Admins that are referred to in the response.

Here is the response from the SBCTC Support Rep (I removed their name).

Hi Douglas,
Thanks for the ticket, we welcome all accessibility related conversations... I'm interested in learning what tools your colleague used to determine that the font color for the temporary outage messaging is inaccessible. According to WAVE and ANDI, even at 9pt, the unbolded font (color:#bf2817) exceeds wcag AA standards of 4.5:1. at 5.94:1. Color is also not being used as the only means to convey a message (ie a required field on a form, and the only way you can tell it's required, is the red color).

As a former ux dev, I know that from a physiological perspective, the human eye finds dark blue, purple, greens more visible and easier to perceive, but from a cultural/philosophical perspective red conveys "Stop or Emergency", which our PS Admins seem to be more in favor of in this scenario.

Unfortunately, we cannot make a global change that effects every institution in the system without a violation or guideline to point to. If you have best practices or validation evidence that says otherwise, please attach, and I can work with the admins that maintains the messaging to reevaluate the request.

Welcome your feedback,

Amy

Amy Rovner, M.P.H., R.D.
Director eLearning Services
Accessible IT Coordinator

Shoreline Community College
www.shoreline.edu  |  206.546.6937
eLearning Office: 206.546-6966
Pronouns: she, her, hers

[Shoreline Community College logo]<https://shoreline.edu/>

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