CODEWITHSUNDEEP
accessibilitywcag2.0
BIBI
BIBI

Reputation: 375

Accessibility settings - WCAG2

Is an accessibility button required on the site?

Or is it possible to link to a page that contains accessibility settings in menu or footer? (instead of a fixed floated button)

And if so mandatory - where should the button be located?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 175

Answers (2)

Tsundoku
Tsundoku

Reputation: 2707

The "accessibility button" mentioned in this question refers to a button at the top of a web page that opens a number of accessibility settings. See for example

Some sites have buttons for specific aspects:

The W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative also has a "Change Text Size or Colors" link at the top of the page. However, this link does not open a panel or other UI interface for changing font size and colours, but instead takes you to a page that explains to users how to do these things in their own browser.

This in itself does not prove that WCAG 2.1 does not require this type of buttons (WCAG 2.1 was published in June 2018 and WAI just might not have updated its website yet), but it is easy to find where WCAG requires a specific technique or process. When searching for the term "mechanism" in WCAG 2.1, one encounters one success criterion that is about the visual presentation of text: SC 1.4.8 at level AAA. This requires among other things, that

(...) a mechanism is available to achieve the following:

  • Foreground and background colors can be selected by the user.
    (...)
  • Text can be resized without assistive technology up to 200 percent in a way that does not require the user to scroll horizontally to read a line of text on a full-screen window.

The last requirement (text resizing) can usually be achieved with appropriate CSS rules; the user can use the browser to do the resizing (e.g. using the buttons Ctrl & +). The first requirement is something that can be done in some browsers (Mozilla Firefox) but not in all (e.g. Chrome and Opera; in Internet Explorer, you need to be able to write user style sheets). This means that web developers cannot count on browsers to provide this mechanism, so it needs to be provided by the web content, e.g. in the form of an accessible (!) button at the top of the page. See also technique G175: Providing a multi color selection tool on the page for foreground and background colors.

The above-mentioned button would only be required if the site must conform to level AAA, which is rarely the case. Legal requirements don't go beyond level AA because level AAA cannot apply to all sites (due to the nature of some of the success criteria at that level).

The mechanism or button needs to conform to all the success criteria at the level of the conformance claim (see definition of mechanism). In this case, the button would need to meet all success criteria in WCAG 2.1 (all three levels). It would need to be at the top of the page or at the start of the tabbing order, although this would be beneficial to user who need this mechanism.

Upvotes: 3

slugolicious
slugolicious

Reputation: 17593

Most accessibility laws refer to Level AA of WCAG, and if you are constrained to that, then the simple answer is "no", an "accessibility button" is not specifically required by WCAG. If you follow the guidelines in WCAG, then your site will be usable by the greatest number of people.

For example, 1.4.4 Resize Text. If you design your site so that if the user uses the browser's increase font feature (typically ctrl++ or cmd++), and your page reflows properly so that text does not overlap or clip, then you're good. You don't have to provide a button that increases the font.

For color issues, 1.4.1 Use of Color and 1.4.3 Contrast (Minimum), again, if you follow the guidelines, then you're good. 1.4.1 doesn't say that color can't be used, but that color itself cannot be the only means to indicate meaning. For example, if you had a table of values and if values between a certain range were red, that would violoate 1.4.1. However, if values were red and bold, or italic, or had parens around them or an asterisk, or anything in addition to being red, then you'd conform with 1.4.1

For 1.4.3, just make sure your text color has a color ratio of 4.5:1 compared to the background color. (It can be 3:1 for "larger" text). If so, then again, you're ok. You do not need to provide a button that changes the text color or provide different color themes.

That doesn't mean you can't provide a button that allows font resizing or color themes, but it's not required. And as @ChristopheStrobbe said, if you're trying to achieve Level AAA of WCAG (which is rare), then you would have to provide some way to change some of these settings (1.4.8)

Upvotes: 2

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