- Success Criterion 1.4.1
- Conformance level A
Selected Tab or Toggle Marked Only by a Color Change
1.4.1 — Use of Color
Scenario
Setting
A customer-support live-chat widget
What’s wrong
Selected state (tabs, toggles, swatches, map pins) indicated by color change alone.
Example
A QA pass on a customer-support live-chat widget turns this up: selected state (tabs, toggles, swatches, map pins) indicated by color change alone.
Why it matters
People with color-vision deficiency, low vision, or constrained viewing conditions such as strong glare. On a customer-support live-chat widget specifically, they can't read the text against its background.
How to test
View selected tabs/toggles/swatches in grayscale: if the selected state disappears without color, it fails.
How to fix
A second visual cue (text, underline, icon, or pattern) must convey the information alongside color.
Outcome
Fixed, a visitor to a customer-support live-chat widget can see the control's boundary and current state.
Who is affected
People with color-vision deficiency, low vision, or constrained viewing conditions such as strong glare.
Learn more
- Understanding Understanding document (opens in a new tab)
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