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I'm having trouble understanding the WCAG 2.0 criteria 1.4.8.

From what I understand it basically says that if I have for example a <div> that I define both background and text color in, I will have to either:

  • Provide a color picker tool for that div so that the user can change those colors
  • "G156: Using a technology that has commonly-available user agents that can change the foreground and background of blocks of text"

Providing a color picker sounds pretty far fetched, so I'm placing my hopes on "G156". Does a regular web browser (ie,firefox,opera etc.) qualify as such an user agent?

Another confusing part is the "common failure" where it says "F24: Failure of Success Criterion 1.4.3, 1.4.6 and 1.4.8 due to specifying foreground colors without specifying background colors or vice versa", which I sort of interpret as "as long as you specify both background and text color for that div, your safe".

Any thoughts on how to interpret this WCAG criteria?

Matthieu FAURE
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phobia
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1 Answers1

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Does a regular web browser (ie,firefox,opera etc.) qualify as such an user agent?

According to http://www.w3.org/TR/2010/NOTE-WCAG20-TECHS-20101014/G156, it seems so. It says:

Tests

Procedure

  • Open the Web page in a browser that allows users to change colors of HTML content.

  • Change the foreground and background colors in the browser settings so they are different than those specified in the content.

  • Return to the page and check that that the new specified foreground text and background colors in the browser override the colors specified in the content.

Expected Results

  • Check #3 is true.

"as long as you specify both background and text color for that div, you're safe"

I think so. It means don't just assume the background is white, because if you don't explicitly specify it, it might not be.

Alohci
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  • Good points. The same page also informs that Safari and older IE versions don't support that type of color change. So I guess it comes down to what browser versions it's reasonable to support. And if it's reasonable to support the aforementioned, it comes down to that color picker after all. – phobia May 18 '11 at 13:30
  • I've always thought this also referred to the ability of users to customize colors on a page by applying a custom CSS file. The web page would need to be designed in a way that didn't interfere with that. – Scribblemacher Aug 08 '17 at 11:47