It is common knowledge that many people daily cope with the visual impairment commonly referred to as “color blindness”. Few people stop to think what that means in this digital age of thousand pixel resolution screens capable of displaying millions of colors. Web designers (myself included) consistently employ colors virtually undetectable. The most frequent abusers being shades of red and green.

If you are a computer user, a simple fix is to set your browser Display settings to the lowest possible number of colors. Newer monitors may even have the ability to alter hue and saturation so that you get everything in grayscale.

BT Communications, Watchfire, and W3C are only a few of the organizations committed to fully accessible websites. BT has developed web-safe color palettes to make choosing visible colors easier. Basically, they fall into three main categories: black and white, blue and yellow, brown and tan. At first this may seem too restrictive, however, many an attractive website has employed these protan and deutan palettes. They are particularly appropriate for business websites where a polished image is important.

Compare for yourself, visit Spider Studio, just one of many websites that sell templates for business web pages. Which website inspires more professional confidence?

Safe color palettes provide plenty of eye pleasing options. They may also ease the strain from viewing those garishly glaring websites and the Flash sites with constant movement drawing your eye away from the content you came to see.

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It is quite simple to develop a website that all can enjoy, seek the beauty of a crisp winter day. After all, we have been reading black text on white paper for centuries. A little color goes a long way toward dressing up our reading. BMW Motorcycles have mastered the art. Their print advertisements are always done in black and white with a touch of copper (or gold or blue) to highlight only the aspect they wish the customer to pay attention to. It dramatically illustrates new features and concepts. Simple sells, even when you are only selling information.

BT Age and Disability Action. (Oct. 25, 2005). Palette Files: A Simple Comparison. Retrieved 11 Nov. 2005 from http://www.btplc.com/age_disability/ClearerInformation/Colours/PalFiles.htm.

Spider Studio. (2005). Website Templates. Retrieved 11 Nov. 2005 from http://www.spiderstudio.net/webdesign-templates.html.