1.4.1 Use of Color: Color is not used as the only visual means of conveying information, indicating an action, prompting a response, or distinguishing a visual element.
SC 1.4.1 Use of Color supports the accessibility principle Perceivable because users without perception of color (e.g., color blindness) or who have vision limitations (e.g., without or limited vision) cannot perceive, or see information conveyed through color alone. The intent of this SC is to ensure that content does not use only color to convey meaning; the author must provide another means by which the information is also communicated.
Content that may be impacted by the use of color includes: information (including error messages), indication of an action, response to prompts, or differentiation of a visual element. It is considered a browser setting if a visited link changes color, so that change is not tested for this SC.
Some examples of use of color to convey content are:
- information, such as ‘required fields are red,’ ’error is shown in red,’ and ‘Mary’s sales are in orange, Tom’s are in blue.’
- indications of an action, such as using color to indicate that a link will open in a new window or that a database entry has been updated successfully.
- prompting a response, such as using highlighting on required form fields to indicate it has been left blank.
- distinguishing a visual element, such as identifying a hyperlink.
Ways to clearly communicate meaning without using color only are through context, text, or other visual cues such as on-screen or alternate text, patterning, symbols, shape, position, size, or underline.
The use of color to convey information is not discouraged; but it should never be the only means of conveying information.
If color is used but does not convey meaning, this SC does not apply.
Impact of Nonconformance with SC 1.4.1 Use of Color
| Type of Disability | Description of Impact |
|---|---|
| 302.1 Without Vision | Users who are blind cannot use a mouse to interact with electronic content and typically use an assistive technology, such as a screen reader, to get audible or other alternative output for the information represented visually. To be able to navigate the content, understand its structure and relationships, and understand the meaning of content represented in graphics and images, the content must provide textual and programmatic cues in addition to the content presented purely visually. |
| 302.2 With Limited Vision | Users with limited vision may have widely different visual perception. Individuals with limited vision may or may not use assistive technologies. Therefore, in addition to textual and programmatic cues necessary for assistive technologies, ICT must also present content consistently and predictably. Users who view content with magnifiers may not pick up alerts, warnings, or other content if such content is presented outside of a consistent and predictable navigation pattern or if the content is not itself viewable at large magnification. Content that becomes distorted when magnified can also prevent some users with limited vision from being able to understand or interact with the content. |
| 302.3 Without Perception of Color | Some users may not be able to perceive differences between certain colors, and therefore do not receive information conveyed by the colors (e.g., using gradients of color between red, yellow, and green to indicate an item’s status from poor to good). In such cases, ICT must provide additional information by alternative means that conveys the same meaning (e.g., shapes and/or textual labels in addition to the color). |
Applicability of Success Criteria 1.4.1 Use of Color
| Technology | Applicability of SC 1.4.1 |
|---|---|
| All (Web, Software, Office documents, PDFs, Mobile Native) | Applies directly; developers must provide additional information to clarify anything that depends solely on color to convey information, regardless of format or technology in which the information is presented. |