When designing a website, it’s easy (and fun!) to focus on layout and content. But one crucial element that often gets overlooked is color. Color plays a vital role in web accessibility, ensuring that all users—regardless of visual impairments or color vision deficiencies—can easily navigate and engage with your content.
Proper color contrast is key to making text readable for those with low vision or color blindness. In this post, we’ll explore why color is so important for accessibility and how to create a color palette that ensures your website is inclusive and user-friendly for everyone.
Why color is important for accessibility
Color, specifically color contrast, is central in ensuring web content is accessible, particularly for users with visual impairments, color blindness, or low vision.
Someone with low vision may struggle to read text with poor contrast, such as light gray text on a white background. Users with color blindness may find it difficult to differentiate between certain colors, such as red and green, if the contrast is insufficient. High-contrast design helps bridge these gaps.
Not only that, accessibility isn’t just a best practice—it’s becoming a legal requirement in many parts of the world. The European Accessibility Act (EAA), taking effect in 2025, will require digital products and services, including some websites, to meet certain accessibility standards like sufficient color contrast, avoiding color-dependent information, and following Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Non-compliance could lead to fines, making accessibility an essential priority for businesses serving the EU market.
Beyond its impact on accessibility, proper color contrast also benefits all users, including those viewing content in challenging environments. Bright sunlight, low-quality monitors, or small screen sizes can make low-contrast elements harder to see for anyone.
What makes a color palette accessible?
While color contrast is central to the accessibility of color, there are other things you can do to make the color on your site even more accessible. All of these elements come together to ensure optimal color accessibility:
By considering all these elements, you can create a site that is both functional and inclusive.
What is a contrast ratio?
To better understand if your site’s color palette is accessible, it’s important to understand how color contrast is measured.
Color contrast ratio is a numerical value that represents the difference in luminance (light intensity) between two colors, such as the text and its background. It is calculated as a ratio, with values ranging from 1:1 (no contrast, e.g., white text on a white background) to 21:1 (maximum contrast, e.g., black text on a white background). A higher ratio indicates greater contrast, making it easier for users to distinguish between the foreground and background elements.
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) recommends a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for most text and images of text, and 3:1 for large text (at least 18 point or 14 point bold and above).
Example of a low contrast ratio
Take this example of a light green button with white text. It may look legible to you, but upon further inspection, using the Chrome Accessibility tools in the Chrome browser, the contrast ratio is quite low at 1.71:1. As such, the text on this button would be difficult for many users to read.
How to test for accessible color combinations
Testing color combinations for accessibility is straightforward with the right tools. Here are some of our most trusted tools for testing colors:
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Many design programs, such as Adobe and Figma, include built-in accessibility tools or add-ons that allow you to analyze color contrast directly within your design files, allowing you to address accessibility considerations early in the design process—even before development begins.
Some beautiful, accessible color combinations and themes
Finding accessible color combinations doesn’t mean sacrificing aesthetics. Here are some of our favorite high-contrast designs in the WordPress.com theme directory:
Koinonia
The Koinonia theme is ideal for building community-focused websites, such as nonprofits and churches. It features a clean, modern layout with a focus on readability and easy navigation. It adheres to accessibility standards, with features like proper color contrast, keyboard navigation support, and screen reader compatibility, which helps differently abled users access content effortlessly.
| Darkest Black #030203 | Berry Sorbet #FB6669 | Dark Sangria #560122 |
Conference
The Conference theme is thoughtfully designed for event and conference planners, combining functionality with accessibility to create an inclusive experience for all users. Its design emphasizes clear, intuitive navigation and offers support for high-contrast color settings, ensuring content remains readable and usable for individuals with visual impairments.
| Signal Blue #345EFC | Emerald Glow #49EF7C | Deep Black #1E1D2C |
Fixmate
This theme from the WordPress.com team features clean, high-contrast text on light backgrounds, ensuring maximum readability for users with visual impairments. The theme adheres to accessibility best practices by using logical heading structures, keyboard-navigable menus, and link styling that avoids reliance on color alone for identification.
| Golden Marigold #FDC62A | Midnight Cola #0F0C0C | Tidepool Jade #2D92A1 |
Want a more customized look? When you’re ready to build, WordPress.com makes it easy to define and implement an accessible color palette for your site on Premium plans and above. You can customize these themes with the colors of your choosing, but be sure to always verify your color contrast ratios and test them in different contexts, such as buttons, headers, and body text.
A final word on accessible color
Accessible design is not just about meeting standards; it’s about creating experiences that welcome everyone. By prioritizing color accessibility, you’re taking a meaningful step toward a more inclusive web.
Want to learn more about building an inclusive WordPress site? Here are a few resources to get you started:
