When designing your course, writing an article, or developing training material, are you depending on color to convey a concept, denote a recurring item, or flag a requirement?

This could be difficult for students that may be color-blind. In most cases it is reds and greens that a person will have a problem distinguishing between, however; other colors can be a problem as well.

The key is not to base your content or directions solely on color. For example:

Bad: “Anything required to complete is noted in red, while extra credit items are noted in blue.”

Good: “Anything required to complete is noted in red with an asterisk* by it, while extra credit items are preceded by the letters ‘EC’ and noted in blue.

If you have an image that is dependent on color, you would need to annotate your image (and supply the appropriate alt text) and/or add additional explanation/description in the text of the article to convey what it is you would like the reader to see and learn from the image.

Follow this link for more information about designing for color-blindness (http://webaim.org/articles/visual/colorblind).