The WCAG checker said my green button fails, turns out I was testing the wrong layer

I read a comment on a dev forum about how the text and the background need to be checked as one solid block, not separate elements, so I retested my signup page in Chicago and the contrast ratio actually dropped from 4.9 to 3.2, has anyone else been fooled by that spacing trick?

2 comments

2 Comments

avery36616d ago

Wait, you're telling me the SPACING between elements actually changes the contrast ratio? That seems backwards to me, since the colors stay the same no matter where the text sits. I thought WCAG was all about color difference, not layout. 4.9 to 3.2 is a HUGE drop, that's like failing after passing by a mile. Did you test it with the text highlighted or something, or was the background bleeding through in between the letters? I'm gonna have to recheck my own buttons now because I never even thought about that as a separate thing.

ericjackson16d ago

Ngl @avery366, that exact same thing happened to me last month and I was so confused.