Accessible toggle

Question

We are redesigning our website and there are some concerns internally that accessibility affects the design element. A toggle mode was suggested. Our standard version would

Answer 1

As hard as it is, sometimes a design change is necessary to make a web page accessible.

A "separate but equal" page may meet the lowest level of WCAG 2.0 but it creates other issues as far as making sure people who need the accessible page know how to get to it and making sure to update both versions of each page so that they have the same information.

Additionally, if you cannot find a way to show the content in an accessible way on the inaccessible page, how is the information going to be shown in an equivalent manner on the accessible one?

Answer 2

WCAG 2.0 allows a conforming alternate version (under some conditions):

For Level A conformance (the minimum level of conformance), the Web page satisfies all the Level A Success Criteria, or a conforming alternate version is provided.

However, if you intend to use the inaccessible page by default and provide a link to the accessible page, then you’d need to make sure that this link is accessible. Which would mean in your case that the link has a conforming contrast ratio and size.

Answer 3

Are you sure what you really want is a toggle? This is forcing an extra step on some users to use your site. This is specifically concerning as you are talking about toggles for contrast ration and font size.

From this I can presume that you have some parts of your design that have poor contrast and small lettering.

For starters people who have issues with contrast and font-size aren't just "traditional blind people", but also:

• elderly users (a growing population)
• color-blind users
• users in high glare environments - like most smart phone users outside

Additionally, small fonts will make it difficult for phone and tablet users (a very quickly growing market).

If your issues are with contrast and font-size, I'd suggest re-exploring your options to improve your design as it will probably impact many more users than you realise.